Pear Crop Insurance & Hot Goods Issues

Pear Crop Insurance & Hot Goods Issues

Pear Crop Insurance & Hot Goods Issues plus Food Forethought. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report.

If you are a pear producer, listen up. USDA's Risk Management has announced program enhancements to the Pear Multi-Peril Crop Insurance plan for the 2015 crop year. RMA's Jo Lynne Seufer explains.

SEUFER: We've approved some modifications to the current Multi-Peril Crop Insurance policy for pears and by adding some optional units provides a producer the availability to insure their pears by type. And then also we've done revisions to the actuarial structure for pear types. That makes it easier for both the producer and the crop insurance agent. We are now allowing different coverage levels and percent of price elections that may be elected by the producer for each type in the county.

A little-known "hot goods' provision of federal wage law that allows the government to halt shipments of goods produced in violation of employment laws is causing some major contention with berry producers in the NW. The provision has been used mainly to combat minimum wage and overtime pay abuses by garment makers but, under the Obama Administration, federal officials have invoked the hot goods provision against farm owners somewhat more often than earlier administrations. Critics argue that the hot goods provision never was intended to apply to farm products that can spoil quickly.

Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Lacy Gray.

October is a spectacular month, with its warm days, cool nights, brilliant fall foliage, and bountiful harvests. It is also National Farm to School Month. Several school children from Arizona, California, Ohio and D.C. will have some pretty special October 2014 memories to share in later years, as they were invited this week to help First Lady Michelle Obama harvest the White House Kitchen Garden in celebration of Farm to School Month. Farm to school programs were started in an effort to bring locally grown foods directly to local schools, and have gone from only a handful of schools participating nationwide to thousands of schools having such programs today. Students fortunate enough to have farm to school programs are often able to enjoy field trips to local farms and ranches where they benefit from "outdoor classrooms" that introduce them to the world of agriculture; teaching them how important and vital agriculture is to each and every one of us.

Thanks Lacy. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.

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