A new analysis based on government data finds that insurance payments to farmers have risen more than 400 percent for drought-related losses and nearly 300 percent for losses from rains and flooding, from 1995 to 2020.
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Crop insurance was initially set up to compensate farmers when bad weather destroys crops or when prices fall.
But projections from government and academic researchers say that the cost will likely balloon as climate change makes growing conditions even more challenging.
“If you look at the performance of the program, it’s good.
“Many unforeseeable factors impact yields, price and finances of agricultural producers, and that uncertainty makes the industry susceptible to risk,” said Rep.
Supporters also note that the Risk Management Agency has started to incorporate climate change into its calculations.
But a greater concern, critics say, is that crop insurance has encouraged farmers to plant environmentally damaging crops, year after year, driving erosion across the fertile soils of the Midwest, increasing the use of polluting fertilizers and unleashing soil carbon.
The Environmental Working Group’s new database, released along with the new analysis, drills down into crop insurance payments and subsidies, displaying them by county and state, by commodity and by the cause of loss.
But there’s growing debate over the crop insurance program and whether it’s the right place to create incentives for farmers to grow crops in more “climate friendly” ways.
The Agriculture Department and private companies are in the process of promoting carbon trading markets, in which farmers could sell credits to polluting companies that want to offset their own carbon emissions.
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