How Crop Insurance is preventing the regenerative farming transition

A lot of farmers are interested in making the change to regenerative farming, or at least to begin taking small steps that lean toward better soil and crop management, both for the health of their fields and for the consumers’ sake. But there are three things that are keeping people from making the switch. For one, overhauling the entire system that's been running and earning for generations is hard, and it can cost you money, especially if you’re working with soil that’s been depleted of all of its nutrients. Which brings us to the second factor: old habits die hard. If you've done things a certain way for long enough, well it’s difficult to wrap your head around another way overnight. But both of these first options are humanly possible to override, after all, humans are creative and adaptable and with enough enthusiasm, well we can make a whole lot of change in almost no time at all. It’s the third pothole that gets the production crop farmers: crop insurance. For all the good it’s done, the laws and the rules that you have to abide by to make use of these federal insurances is making it virtually impossible to survive if disaster does strike.

To understand the whole picture, let’s get into a little history. Where, when and why was crop insurance implemented, what was its original aim, and how it's been twisted and warped to suit bigger industries, and not the farmers or the land that feeds the country.

History and background:

After the devastating effects of the Great American Dust Bowl, which saw the deaths of thousands of people due to starvation and malnutrition, President Roosevelt put a few relief programs in place in the event that something like this happened again. And that big plan included protecting farmers and their land. In the event of massive crop losses, be that from hail, storms, tornadoes, pests, disease...just about all of the variables were covered. And if you took the more expensive options, even your equipment and buildings could get some coverage. And it did go well in the beginning, that’s until the 80’s…That’s when the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation merged with the FCIC. The FCIC is a risk management branch of the Department of Agriculture.

And farmers, who were directly affected by these changes were actually all for it in the beginning. They too wanted to stop people from taking advantage of the system. Just like your neighbour faking a back injury for an insurance claim to pay out, so did farmers too lie about the amount of damage they sustained on their fields. There’s always someone out there who wants to rig the system. It was still completely optional on the farmers' part whether or not he be a part of the FCIC, they could always stay with the lesser coverage of the original state funded insurance. But 1994 took away that option. If you wanted that insurance coverage, then you needed to accept the FCIC and all of the rules, if you didn’t, well then you weren’t given access to aid. Simple as that.

The pitfalls:

And what did the FCIC bring to the table, well most of the terms made perfect sense. Even though the paperwork is a nightmare to navigate. Your planted acres need to be documented to the square metre. One slight miscalculation, and you lose your coverage. It doesn’t matter if you under report, or over report on your acreage, get it wrong and you’re out. The same rules apply for your production. Let’s say you planted wheat for grain production, and you listed your wheat as such. But at the end of the season you had a little more, and those few pounds were sold off as silage, a common practice and a good use of excess crops. Whoops, that wasn’t listed at the beginning of the season. So you broke the rules of the fine script.

And what if your entire field was wiped out by disease? Normally, you’d get that crop out of the ground as fast as you can and destroy it before it infects the rest of your farm. But you can’t do that either, no matter if it’s an emergency, you have to wait for approval to remove and destroy the crops first. A process that can take so long that all of your fields end up getting infected.

Look we can go on and on on the red tape being spun out for farmers to run into. It’s almost impossible to make perfect estimates at the beginning of the season, that’s just the reality of farming, whether that be agriculture or livestock. It’s just an unpredictable profession. So what was supposed to be a protective measure, became a minefield…an excuse to deny you the coverage farmers deserve because you got the paperwork wrong by a pound or a yard.

But what does all of this have to do with regenerative farming? Well even the way you plant, treat, or decide not to treat your crops can disqualify you from coverage.

Want to put in a farrow system to regulate your water usage, nope, that’s too risky, you’re not insured.

Planting a cover crop, well it’s not financially viable, regardless if it’s feeding your livestock and protecting your soil…so you lose out again.

And if you want better insurance, that covers more, then you can only get that coverage if you plant certain crops. But don’t think you’re going to get away with your choice of corn or soybeans. No, where you source your seeds from, can only be from certain sellers. And those sellers are not supplying you with the natural, non GMO kind. It’s all the frankenstein varieties that we’re trying to avoid in the first place.

Not treating your crops with pesticides and fungicides is highly discouraged. Not using poison makes you a liability, so your insurance will be at the lower end, if you manage to qualify at all.

So now with all of these ridiculous rules in place…well, there isn’t much incentive for farmers to seek out solutions to their water waste, to intercrop, or even to lay down ground coverage. Just getting through the hoops to do the bare minimum when it comes to better soil management is honestly just too much of a headache to even try to navigate all on its own, never mind trying to find loopholes that can allow you to have at least some semblance of freedom when it comes to running your land.

But if you’re looking for incentives and rewards, there's plenty of that if the FCIC decides that you’re eligible to test out whatever new variation of a crop they want testing out.

The problem is that a lot of these Federal institutions are heavily funded or supported by privately owned companies. For the FCIC, they’re practically owned by private insurance companies and the private insurance companies are buddy buddy with other big players.

OK, so we know that this is all sounding like a tinfoil hat theory. But it’s not a theory at all, it’s actually not even hidden or disguised. The companies that are invested in getting more GMO’s on the market, and their contracts with the federal government’s been pretty well documented, no one’s being secretive about it.

And at the end of the day you don’t HAVE to plant the seeds, or practise according to their guidelines, but if you don’t…you don’t get to be protected in the event of a loss. And you’ll be handsomely rewarded if you play along.

So what option do you think the farmers, who are working in an already difficult profession, are going to take? The one that’s going to offer them at least some protection.

The solution:

As of right now, if you want to go your own way and practice on your own terms, well there isn’t an insurance company that’ll cover you. If your acreage is big enough, well then you can hope to approach an outside company or investor who has an interest in regenerative practices. But out of all of the fish in the pond, good luck getting noticed. Companies and institutions who are interested in organic and regenerative farming, are mostly driven by consumer demand and they seek out farms based on their location, and how cost effective it’s going to be for them. And then you’re stuck with someone else’s red tape all over again.

dClimate, Arbol, Unilever and The Nature Tech Collective are some of the few companies actively funding studies in the regenerative space.

Or you can go rogue completely and carve out your own market, on your own terms and put your worries about disaster in the hands of a higher power, or savings if you can. There is business for you out there, and enough consciously supportive individuals and businesses that will be happy to sell your products. But you can’t be relying on large chain stores and federal funded programs to get your crops where they need to go. It’s going to rely heavily on your ability to market yourself and your product.

And at the end of the day the data is what's going to give organic practices the push it needs. There’s no question that regenerative farming is better in the long term, both for soil longevity, water management and for better yields. But unfortunately until the evidence becomes so overwhelming that it would become embarrassing to push the narrative, the sheer amount of financial gain all of these federal and privately owned companies get by milking the system to the very end is going to keep their teeth firmly imbedded in twisting the system in such a way that everyone complies.

We want to come here, giving you answers, solutions and a plan forward. But it’s very difficult to be optimistic when the odds are stacked against you. There just aren’t a lot of ways to approach agriculture regeneratively, without losing your insurance. So let’s focus on the things you can do.

The thing you have to realise is that it’s all about risk assessment. That’s why insurance companies are so hard up about the seeds and the methods. Everything in the last 100 years of farming, as unethical as we might think it is, has proven that there will be a certain percentage of yield at the end of a season if the genetically modified seeds and the pesticides are used, regardless of what the conditions are. So they encourage those sure fire ways to get at least some return.

But planting wildflowers on the outskirts of their fields to bring in pollinators isn’t infringing upon their rule book. The unused field that doesn’t fall on insured land can play the base for your regenerative farming, after a handful of seasons, you’ve got proof that it produces well consistently, giving you a reasonable argument to support that field in the future. In other words, the risk decreases every year that the field produces. And the numbers prove your argument.

And activism is forcing change too. Where farrow systems were actively dissuaded just 10 years ago, it is now accepted.

And for pesticides, you’ll have to find an effective alternative, and one that you can prove works. The options aren't perfect, but man, they are so much much better for the environment, your overall soil health and the long term negative effects that synthetic options are. Depending on the insurance company a lot of organic pesticides are accepted now, you just need to consult the approved lists that they have and seek out those options.

For botanical insecticides you can look at Pyrethrin, Neem Oil, Rotenone and Sabadilla. Options for mineral based protections that lean away from synthetics are Diatomaceous Earth, Kaolin Clay and Sulphur. All of them target a wide variety of creepy crawlies wanting a bite of your crops and the mineral based compounds act as fungicides and acaricides too. Microbial insecticides like BT are usually alright and even ladybugs are sometimes approved as an effective form of pest control.

In other words, there are options. You’re going to have to fight for approval, and you might not get the full coverage you were looking for. No one is going to advertise the organic options, and a rep will actively steer you toward the synthetic and GMO route, but if you’re clued up on the rule book and you’ve done your research, you can get the approval you need, and do so within legal bounds.

And finally, if you can afford it, get legal representation to argue the viability of your crops for you. Getting insured for organic farming has been done successfully before, so there’s no reason you shouldn’t be a part of that exclusive club. You’ll just have to do your homework to get it done, is all.

Conclusion:

Luckily we have a lot of faith in the ingenuity of man. Humanity has a habit of getting real creative, real fast when they’re pushed up against a wall. Given the knowledge we have at our disposal today, and the increasing pressure from the consumers for healthier, more eco-friendly practices…both the big corporations and the insurance companies are going to be forced to cave to demands more and more. The fight we put in now is going to force the system to change in favour of future farmers. Think of the old saying that our grandparents used to say, plant the orchard now. By the time you see the fruits on your trees, your children will be able to enjoy them. And no one knows better than the farming community that forward thinking and future planning is what’s going to keep the generations fed after us. Fight the fight now, and better the chances of sustainable farming for yourself, and those who come after you.

Outro:

And now, like always, the floor is yours. Do you believe that with enough pressure from us that the system can indeed change for the better. Or do you have another option for us to consider when it comes to insurance? Let us know in the comments below!
Until next time, like, subscribe and love the land beneath your feet, it’ll love you back 10 fold in return!