FARMING IN AMERICA . . . HARVESTING FRAUD

Farmers faking disasters have defrauded the government of millions of dollars, investigators say. The Senate Agriculture Committee looked at eight crops in nine states, and uncovered $92.5 million in questionable payments between 1988 and 1993. The Committee found that farmers took advantage of an aid program for losses incurred because of weather disasters: If prices fell below what they would get in relief, the plowmen sometimes simply failed to harvest, claiming storms had destroyed their crops.