RALEIGH - Earlier this month the US Senate passed a five-year, half-trillion-dollar farm bill that expands crop insurance for rice and peanuts while making small cuts to food stamps. North Carolina Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler says he is pleased with the progress on the 2013 farm bill.

Troxler serves as President of the national association of state departments of agriculture.

“The things that we have targeted as priorities were treated very well so from that perspective, we’re very satisfied with it. The one thing we need is certainty in agriculture. “

Troxler says crop insurance is crucial since it benefits farmers in so many ways.“When you have insurance up front to manage risk and minimize problems with a disaster then you don’t need these…relief programs.”

House Speaker John Boehner has said the House will take up its version of the farm bill this month. Debate in the House is expected to be contentious and much more partisan than in the Senate, with disagreements among the GOP caucus over domestic food aid that makes up almost 80 percent of the bill's cost.

Troxler says “there’s going to have to be a compromise on that. I guess this just points out the misnomer in calling this bill a farm bill when only 15 percent of this bill is actually about agriculture. There’s a lot of other things tied to it and a lot of other people have an influence on how this bill is going to be written.”