This week, the farmer leaders of the Illinois Corn Growers Association are in Washington, DC visiting the Illinois Congressional Delegation and talking about their priority issues. But the question they are asked the most is, “How is your crop in the middle of this drought?”
The crop is bad. This image by Meghan Grebner, Brownfield Ag News, of a Litchfield, IL corn field really showcases the drastic situation that some of Illinois is in. Farmers are worried about their crop and emotions are running high because they have put in all the labor and money to put a crop into the ground and now they have to watch while Mother Nature burns it up.
Still, most farmers will be ok because they take out crop insurance to protect them against failures like these. The Federal Government partners with farmers to purchase crop insurance because food security is in everyone’s best interest. There will be no food if droughts like this one knocked every farmer out of business.
Crop insurance and other risk management programs are what farmers are trying to preserve in the Farm Bill being debated on the Hill right now. So in an interesting way, the drought is a curse and a blessing, reminding all of us that our food supply is subject to the whims of Mother Nature and that farmers need a way to protect it.
Illinois corn farmers are in Washington, DC right now, talking about their crop and reminding Congressmen and Senators that we must invest in food security.
