Risky Business: Farm Safety Net Policies Don't Catch Everyone

By Harshawn Ratanpal

A rainbow of crops fills farmer Abbey Innes’ table at the Columbia Farmers Market: tomatoes, squash, garlic, kale and flower bouquets all from her and her husband’s 15-acre farm in Howard County.

But for a few markets last year, the table was a bit emptier.

“We planted hundreds of pounds of seed potatoes and got 10 inches of rain within 10 days,” she said. “And they drowned; they rotted.”

Farming is risky business, and crop insurance helps keep farmers paid when something goes wrong. A few years ago, Innes tried to see if she could get her farm insured. But the agent told her she didn’t have enough of any one particular crop to qualify for insurance.

That’s because she purposefully farms “with the land,” and to her that means farming a variety of crops. Research indicates diverse farms are better for the environment compared to single-crop farms. Diverse farms bolster soil health and require fewer chemical inputs.

For her efforts, she had to forgo insurance and eat the entire cost of those rotted potatoes.

“It is nerve-racking,” she said. “You just got to be ready to be flexible and have a backup plan for if something doesn't go right.”

For some farmers, crop insurance is the backup plan. It’s subsidized by the federal government, and taxpayers foot most of the bill. Taxpayers will pay about $13 billion directly into the program each year over the next decade, according to estimates from the Congressional Budget Office.

But not all farms enjoy equal protection.

“Anywhere between 90 and 100% of corn, soybean and wheat acreage in the United States is covered under some form of crop insurance policy,” said Ben Brown, an University of Missouri Extension agricultural business and policy specialist.

“There is, I would say, larger barriers to entry for fruit and vegetable producers,” he added.