Crop insurance has become a critical safety net for farmers subject to fickle weather that can ruin crops. And though politicians are looking to make some big cuts to farm programs in the upcoming 2012 farm bill, farmers are clinging fiercely to crop insurance.

Corn and soybean farmers not only survived last year's epic drought 鈥� thanks to crop insurance, they made bigger profits than they would have in a normal year, a new analysis finds. And a big chunk of those profits were provided through taxpayer subsidies.

As Congress gets to work on the farm bill, two common-sense, bipartisan reform measures seem to have gotten run over somewhere along the way. The first would set minimum standards for housing egg-laying chickens. The second sought to change how the U.S. provides food aid to people in foreign nations.

It isn't clear yet whether U.S. regulators will approve the takeover of the iconic American company by China's Shuanghui International. There are concerns that Shuanghui could ratchet up production to feed the growing demand for meat in China.