Specialty farms find it hard to get insurance

Divisions between big and small growers weighing on Congress as it considers how to boost coverage in farm bill

Farmers who grow fresh fruits and vegetables are often finding crop insurance prohibitively expensive — or even unavailable — as climate change escalates the likelihood of drought and floods capable of decimating harvests.

Their predicament has left some small farmers questioning their future on the land.

Efforts to increase the availability and affordability of crop insurance are being considered in Congress as part of the next farm bill, but divisions between the interests of big and small farmers loom over the debate.

The threat to farms from climate change is not hypothetical. A 2021 study from researchers at Stanford University found rising temperatures were responsible for 19% of the $27 billion in crop insurance payouts from 1991 to 2017 and concluded additional warming substantially increases the likelihood of future crop losses.

About 85% of the nation’s commodity crops — which include row crops such as corn, soybeans and wheat — are insured, according to the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, a nonprofit promoting environmentally friendly food production.

In contrast, barely half the land devoted to specialty crops — supermarket staples such as strawberries, apples, asparagus and peaches — was insured in 2022, federal statistics show.

Specialty farmers say few agents will work with them. “I know of only one in the state,” said Mike Koeppl, who grows strawberries on 7 acres near Oshkosh, Wis.

Their reluctance is financial, experts say. Agents make more money insuring vast tracts of corn and soybeans. The average American farm is 445 acres, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, but the average specialty farm is considerably smaller.

And most insurance plans cover a single crop, meaning specialty farmers growing a variety of fruits and vegetables need to buy multiple policies.

Companies offering crop insurance stress their plans must offer payouts that roughly equal the insurance premiums taken in.

Products to fill such gaps have emerged, including whole farm revenue protection, a comprehensive insurance policy for farms growing multiple crops.

More than 220,000 American farms grow specialty crops, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation, a trade group. But only 18,659 whole farm revenue plans have been sold in the decade they have been offered, federal statistics show.

In December, Congress extended the current farm bill through 2024, but lawmakers have been unable to agree on what will follow.

The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition recently released a set of recommendations, including easing access to whole farm revenue insurance and expanding disaster relief.

But commodity farmers are wary of modifications.

Growers of corn, soybeans and wheat worry about “changing how the program functions broadly in a way that sets everyone back rather than helping to fill the gaps that exist for certain crops,” said Danny Munch, an economist for the American Farm Bureau Federation.