Purpose

The Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 directed the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Risk Management Association to investigate a policy targeted to farms and ranches that sell through local food markets. However, there is no available research that quantitatively documents the extent to which local food producers utilize Federal crop insurance.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors utilize 2013–2016 USDA Agricultural Resource Management Survey data to compare farms and ranches with sales through local food markets to those with and without Federal crop insurance expenditure, as well as the distribution of Federal crop expenditure, across market channels and scales.

Findings

There is a little variation in Federal crop insurance expenditure across market channels, defined as direct-to-consumer only sales, intermediated sales, and a combination of direct-to-consumer and intermediated sales. Rather, the results show that scale is the primary predictor of Federal crop insurance expenditure; larger operations are more likely to have nonzero Federal crop insurance expenses.

Originality/value

This article provides the first national research to document descriptive statistics of the utilization of Federal crop insurance by US farms and ranches that utilize local food market channels.

中文翻译：

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联邦作物保险对通过当地食品市场销售的农场和牧场的作用

目的

2018 年《农业改进法案》指示美国农业部 (USDA) 风险管理协会调查一项针对通过当地食品市场销售的农场和牧场的政策。然而，没有可用的研究定量记录当地食品生产商利用联邦作物保险的程度。

设计/方法/方法

作者利用 2013-2016 年美国农业部农业资源管理调查数据，比较了通过当地食品市场销售的农场和牧场与有和没有联邦作物保险支出的农场和牧场，以及跨市场渠道和规模的联邦作物支出分布。

发现

跨市场渠道的联邦作物保险支出略有不同，定义为仅直接面向消费者的销售、中间销售以及直接面向消费者和中间销售的组合。相反，结果表明规模是联邦农作物保险支出的主要预测指标。较大的业务更有可能有非零的联邦作物保险费用。

原创性/价值

本文提供了第一个国家研究，记录了利用当地食品市场渠道的美国农场和牧场使用联邦作物保险的描述性统计数据。