| WASHINGTON (AP) -- Sugar beet growers in Southern Minnesota could soon
get about $5 million from the federal government, but the aid will cover
only a fraction of the $65 million in losses from last year' s damaged
crop.
Sens. Paul Wellstone and Mark Dayton, both D-Minn., pushed the aid
package through a House-Senate conference committee last week as part of
the 2002 agriculture spending bill.
Meanwhile, the sugar beet growers are in litigation against more than a
dozen insurance companies, trying to get them to cover last year' s
losses.
According to the Southern Minnesota Beet Sugar Cooperative, based in
Renville, 1.8 million tons of harvested sugar in 16 counties were damaged
or destroyed during an October 2000 frost. Growers did not know the crops
were damaged, however, until they brought them to the processing plant.
The insurance companies did not cover the losses, arguing that the
federally backed crop insurance polices cover only crop damage prior to
harvest.
In March of this year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture' s Risk
Management Agency, which administers the federal crop insurance program,
issued an opinion that the damage was covered. It announced it would
partially reinsure companies that covered the loss, but the agency did not
mandate such coverage.
The crop insurers' trade association, the National Crop Insurance
Services, responded by suing the USDA, accusing it of liberalizing
coverage after the fact.
NCIS officials wouldn' t comment, citing the pending litigation, but
the group' s web site argues that last year' s losses were not significant
enough to warrant coverage.
In addition, the group says, " As a legal matter, the insurance
period ended with harvest."
Both lawsuits are pending in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis.
Sugar grower Neil Rudeen of Bird Island said he lost about $100, 000 in
last year' s frost.
He said that he didn' t think the frost would damage the crops because
after past freezes, the beets would thaw in the ground and recover.
" This time, the damage was too severe, " said Rudeen, who
farms about 1, 000 acres. " But it didn' t show up ' till much
later."
He said he' s worried that he may have trouble getting bank financing
for next year' s crop. Although Rudeen said he' s not facing bankruptcy,
he said he might have to sell off land and equipment.
John Richmond, the co-op' s president and chief executive, said that,
overall, more than 80 percent of last year' s crop was damaged.
" Our growers are in financial distress, " he said.
If the insurance companies had covered the losses, Richmond said, sugar
growers would have gotten between $45 and $50 million in compensation.
The co-op, which includes nearly 600 growers, did negotiate a $13.6
million crop quality claim with the USDA, with a cap of $80, 000 per
grower, Richmond said. |