Save Our Small Farms Act of 2025
The Save Our Small Farms Act of 2025 is designed to make federal crop insurance and disaster assistance programs more accessible and affordable for small and diversified farms. The bill makes three major changes: (1) it reduces costs and paperwork for farmers using the Noninsured Crop Assistance (NAC) program by streamlining applications and creating revenue-based coverage options; (2) it offers premium discounts (25-50%) to encourage farmers to transition from the NAC program to comprehensive whole farm insurance; and (3) it directs the development of new insurance products, including modifications to whole farm revenue protection and a new "single index" weather-based insurance policy designed for small-scale and specialty crop farmers. The legislation aims to help limited-resource farmers, beginning farmers, socially disadvantaged farmers, veteran farmers, and those with diverse production systems (such as urban farms and direct-to-consumer operations) access affordable crop insurance. By lowering barriers to entry and creating stepping-stone programs, the bill seeks to strengthen the viability of small and mid-sized farming operations.
Key Points
- 1Streamlined NAC Applications: Establishes simplified application processes for small-scale, urban, and direct-to-consumer farms, including reduced acreage reporting requirements and the option to submit reports twice yearly instead of once.
- 2Revenue-Based Coverage Option: Allows farmers to use IRS Tax Form Schedule F (farm tax returns) to establish their farm income history, eliminating the need for extensive documentation; insurance providers can only request additional records if they have documented evidence that tax records are incomplete.
- 3Progressive Premium Discounts for Transition: Offers farmers discounts of 25%, 50%, and 50% over three consecutive years if they commit to transitioning from the NAC program to whole farm insurance, with the final discount available upon actual purchase of whole farm coverage.
- 4Whole Farm Insurance Improvements: Requires the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation to implement 11 specific modifications within 18 months, including: accepting tax returns as proof of income history, raising liability limits from $1.5 million to $500,000 for growth expansion, expanding commodity diversity discounts to 10 crops, and requiring insurance companies to provide written explanations when rejecting applications.
- 5New Single Index Insurance Policy: Directs development of a weather-based insurance product covering all 50 states that pays out based on weather conditions (drought, flooding, hail, etc.) rather than actual crop losses, with simplified paperwork and payments within 30 days of a weather event; designed specifically for small farms with less than $350,000 in income.