Biden’s Ukraine request includes $500M for U.S. producers (Farm Progress) 

Farm Progress published an article stating that as the war shifts to and intensifies on Ukraine’s eastern front, the Biden administration is calling on Congress to provide additional resources to Ukraine. Included in the $33 billion supplemental request, the administration is seeking $500 million in food production assistance for U.S. farmers to incentivize additional production to offset potential shortfalls from Ukraine’s crop. Senior research fellow Joseph Glauber said, the proposal to increase crop insurance subsidies for double-cropped soybeans is perplexing. “The window for double-cropped soybeans is pretty small. Wait too long and you could have major yield losses. I would hate for a program like this to screw up the actuarials on soybeans. Moreover, there is no guarantee that an increase in double-cropped soybean area will mean that winter wheat area will increase.”  Back in 2012-13, farmers planted almost 8 million acres of double-cropped soybeans, Glauber explains. “Prices are high enough to encourage additional plantings — you shouldn’t mess with the crop insurance program to encourage crop production.” Senior research fellow David Laborde, adds that market signals are strong enough without these policies to encourage additional planting. The adverse effects of such measures may outweigh some of the benefits. This could potentially create tensions with other exporting countries and could even deter some production expansion in other places. “The world does not need more concentration of production,” Laborde warns.