The search is on for better safety net in 2012 farm bill

House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson (D-MN) wants to craft a better safety net for crop and livestock producers, but he faces an uphill battle on several fronts–cost, structure, actuarial soundness, delivery system, and producer attitudes, just to name a few. Still, he remains convinced that it might be possible to develop a more efficient system and perhaps even save some money in the process. During a series of farm bill field hearings this month, Peterson talked about developing a crop insurance system that covers all crops and suggested that one of the ways to do that is to eliminate spending on catastrophic (CAT) coverage and the noninsured crop assistance program (NAP). “We could pick up a lot of revenue by eliminating CAT coverage. It gives us extra money to fix the system,” Peterson explained.