Senate agriculture panel advances grain-indemnity plan, meat-label tweaks and other farm bills

A Mississippi Senate committee advanced multiple agriculture bills on the docket, moving several measures forward on title and approving committee-substitute actions while leaving some technical questions unresolved.

The committee heard the Mississippi Grain Indemnity Act (Senate Bill 26-31), a voluntary program that would let grain producers pay a small per-bushel assessment—described in committee as 0.2% of the marketed price—to participate in an indemnity fund. The bill would cap the program at $25,000,000 initially; the committee did not decide whether the state will provide seed money to start the fund. "We haven't come up with any seed money yet at this point," the chair said. Committee members asked staff to try to find answers about past failures referenced during debate (the transcript names "Express Grain") and noted the fund’s cap and assessment rate were proposals rather than…