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

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.

Seeds of Success Webinar | The Organic Farming Research Foundation (OFRF), is partnering with the Organic Farmers Association (OFA), and National Organic Coalition (NOC) to host a series of virtual farmer-to-farmer networking sessions, Seeds of Success. These facilitated events will be interactive, informal spaces for farmers to share their challenges and successes, and will give farmers an opportunity to have open conversations on topics most relevant to them.

For more information about the Organic Farmers Association and its programs, resources, and events, please visit: https://organicfarmersassociation.org

This work was supported through the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Transition to Organic Partnership Program (TOPP). TOPP is a program of the USDA Organic Transition Initiative and is administered by the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) National Organic Program (NOP). For more information about TOPP or transitioning to organic, please visit: http://www.organictransition.org