Increased flooding and droughts linked to climate change have sent crop insurance payouts skyrocketing (Inside Climate News)

Inside Climate News, in its Politics & Policy section, published an article on why farmers are slow to purchase crop insurance thus discouraging them from adapting to a rapidly warming planet. The crop insurance program run by the United States Agriculture Risk Management Agency has been sound, but that’s only because taxpayers pay 60 percent of those premiums—about $103 billion of the $171 billion total—while farmers pick up the rest. Senior Research Fellow Joseph Glauber said, “If you look at the performance of the program, it’s good. Premiums are sufficient to cover indemnities, but if you don’t include the premium subsidy, it doesn’t work.” Glauber noted that in some disastrous years, like 2012, which was plagued by extreme drought, indemnities far exceeded the premiums. “If you had two 2012’s in a row, the rates would have to increase.