Camelina Crop Insurance: What Took So Long?

Jump starts apparently take longer than they used to ...

May 3, 2007 - Tester bill would insure biofuel crops'U.S. Sen. Jon Tester said Thursday he is sponsoring legislation to provide insurance for camelina and other biofuels crops, give farmers an added incentive to grow them and reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil.

"This is a very important bill," the Montana Democrat said via telephone from a press conference in Washington. "We think it's a win-win-win deal."

Normally, insuring new crops is a process that takes years, but Tester said his bill would jumpstart the effort for biofuels.'
...
November 30, 2011 - Biofuel crop insurance targets Montana'The Montana biofuel industry got a jump start Wednesday from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which selected 40 counties for a federally backed camelina insurance.

Camelina, an oilseed used to make biodiesel and jet fuel, has often been touted by Gov. Brian Schweitzer and others as an ideal Montana green energy crop. But without federally subsidized insurance, most farmers weren’t willing to gamble on camelina.

New crops rarely are insurable. U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont, got camelina insurance included in the 2007 farm bill because he knew the crop wouldn’t take root in Montana unless it had a federal safety net. USDA’s announcement Wednesday means the insurance will be available for the 2012 crop year.'
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Maybe I'm old fashion in my questioning, but if camelina insurance was(is) so important to the plant's success then why has it taken so long to implement?

Shouldn't the problem that caused this delay be identified and solved so that future crops won't run into the same problem?

Not reported elsewhere, as far as I know, the results of the FSA's BCAP 2011 camelina federal subsidy program reported here in October...'All 56 Counties in Montana were available for the FSA 2011 BCAP camelina subsidies. Blaine, Chouteau and Phillips Counties in Montana, which was eligible for 15,000, contracted a total of 528 acres (3.5%).'We'll likely never know what happened to Senator Tester's S.1242, and why crop insurance for camelina took so long. The cheerleaders media don't appear to be asking any questions of our elected officials and listening to biofuel companies advice instead of actual farmers who have previously grown the stuff is just kicking the can farther down the road.

The reason farmers weren't willing to gamble on camelina is because of crop insurance? Or because the signup period for BCAP was too short? Or because the BCAP contracts were too long? Or because the BCAP subsidies were to little?

If crop insurance doesn't work to grow more camelina in Montana, no doubt we'll instead be reading and hearing from the cheerleaders media about some other grand government solution.