Crop Insurance for Organic Farmers: What’s Working, What’s Not, and How We Can Make it Work for Us

By Elizabeth Tobey

In a changing climate, crop insurance can make or break a farmer’s ability to keep farming the next year. But this federally-subsidized program, intended as a safety-net for farmers, serves some producers, growing a few specific crops, better than others. The program, as currently designed, feeds into consolidation of land and resources in agriculture, with crop insurance being the only subsidized farm program with no upper limit on the funds that a farmer can receive from the federal government, a practice which reinforces existing power structures and leads to fewer, bigger, and less diverse farms.

Organic and transitioning farmers, specifically, find themselves misunderstood and underserved in the crop insurance system, as their practices, rotations, transition and certification processes are not widely understood by the agents serving them, and can be in conflict with Risk Management Agency requirements.

Noah Wendt – A&W Farms, Iowa and Seth Kroeck – Crystal Spring Farm, Maine share their experiences with crop insurance.