LETTERS [Topeka Capital Journal (KS)]

GUNS IN SCHOOLS

Risk vs. reward

EMC Insurance Services is a stock insurance company. Its fiduciary responsibility is to make profits. To that end, it has people with advanced degrees in mathematics and computer modeling to ascertain risk.

The NRA is a lobbying organization. It has lobbyists to convince lawmakers to loosen gun laws. Their opinion is the world will be safer if schoolteachers bring guns into the classroom.

EMC Insurance Services begs to differ.

EMC thinks the best way to protect its stockholders is to refuse to sell insurance to school districts that follow the NRA model. EMC is saying the level of risk is so high it can't make a profit regardless of how much it charges in premiums. It's all risk and no reward.

So who are you going to believe? I'll take the guys with the mathematicians and the computers.

LARRY WOHLGEMUTH,

Ankeny, Iowa

AGRICULTURE

Protect farmers

Biotechnology-improved seeds are widely used by farmers around the world and right here in Kansas to produce high-quality food and crops.

There is plenty of misinformation being spread by opponents of genetically modified crops. The truth is they have passed a rigorous scientific review that has found them safe for all of us, as well as for the environment.

Lawsuits from opponents of genetically modified crops have the potential to cause substantial harm to family farmers who have done nothing wrong. The Farmer Assurance Provision protects farmers who have purchased approved biotech seeds by allowing planting and harvesting, despite any lawsuit that might be filed.

Imagine the farmer you know being forced to pull his crops from the ground because someone filed a lawsuit challenging the use of crops he was legally allowed to plant.

That's just unacceptable.

The Farmer Assurance Provision gives the USDA the ability to allow farmers to continue growing and harvesting their crops while these nuisance lawsuits play out. That is the only fair outcome for farmers who have played by the rules and have invested substantial amounts of money to see their crops through to the end of harvest season.

Unfortunately, there have been some attempts in Congress to repeal the Farmer Assurance Provision.

We need to be vigilant to make sure this important protection for farmers remains in place.

Farmers must be free to make choices to meet increasing food demand without fear of loss of income due to frivolous litigation.

That is why it is important to support the Farmer Assurance Provision and work against efforts to repeal it.

American farmers depend on it and so does our world food supply.

Sen. Larry Powell, Garden City