{"id":6407,"date":"2015-11-19T10:58:21","date_gmt":"2015-11-19T15:58:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ncis.staging.wpengine.com\/?p=6407"},"modified":"2015-11-19T10:58:21","modified_gmt":"2015-11-19T15:58:21","slug":"this-drought-just-isnt-giving-up-but-farmers-arent-quitters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iripreviewsite.com\/cropinsuranceinamerica\/this-drought-just-isnt-giving-up-but-farmers-arent-quitters\/","title":{"rendered":"This Drought Just Isn\u2019t Giving Up, But Farmers Aren\u2019t Quitters"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>California\u2019s central valley has been called America\u2019s salad bowl, but honestly in the last four years, it looks more like a dust bowl than a vegetable garden.\u00a0 The historic drought has caused many California farmers to pay prices for water \u2013 just to keep their orchards alive \u2013 that most Americans would find unfathomable.<\/p>\n<p>Almond, stone fruit, grape and citrus owners once paid roughly $70 per acre foot to ensure that their long term investments had enough water to remain healthy and productive.\u00a0 That cost is now as much as $1,300 per acre foot \u2013 about an 1800 percent increase \u2013 all while the retail value of their crops has risen very little in comparison.<\/p>\n<p>Estimates are that 170,000 jobs in Kern County alone are directly connected to farming and harvesting.\u00a0 But the number of jobs connected to supporting those farmers, growers and harvesters is around eight times that amount.\u00a0 Crop insurance acts as an underpinning for all of these important jobs and productivity that represent a sizeable portion of our economy.<\/p>\n<p>In the past, a wide scale disaster of this magnitude would have triggered a series of very expensive <em>ad hoc<\/em> disaster bills paid for exclusively by taxpayers.\u00a0 But there has not been a single disaster bill passed even though this drought refuses to release its grip.\u00a0 And that\u2019s because nowadays, farmers are able to purchase the protection and peace of mind of crop insurance.<\/p>\n<p>Crop insurance is a public private partnership whereby farmers purchase policies with their own money, and the policies are sold and serviced by participating companies and agents.<\/p>\n<p>Clearly, the success behind crop insurance is that it\u2019s affordable, viable, and available.\u00a0 Unlike other forms of insurance, any farmer who wishes to purchase crop insurance can do so, regardless of the size of their farming operation or how many years they may have under their belts farming.<\/p>\n<p>Farmers prefer crop insurance because it allows them to pay a premium to help remove some degree of risk from a very volatile business.\u00a0\u00a0 Twenty years ago, many farmers had never heard of crop insurance.\u00a0 Today, crop insurance protects more than 90 percent of planted acres nationally.<\/p>\n<p>A crop insurance check will never come close to what a farmer can get from a good harvest.\u00a0\u00a0 But it does offer farmers some peace of mind so that they know that if Mother Nature gets ugly, they can bounce back and be in business again next year.\u00a0 That\u2019s good for consumers, who don\u2019t want their food supply disrupted, and good for the rural economy as well.<\/p>\n<p>When I began this career 13 years ago, I was surprised that bankers were making loans without the guarantee of crop insurance.\u00a0 Obviously, that doesn\u2019t happen much anymore. In fact, it\u2019s very difficult for farmers to get a loan at all without a crop insurance policy in hand.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, crop insurance has its critics who try and make the program sound like another federal handout.\u00a0 Nothing could be further from the truth.\u00a0 In fact, when farmers purchase crop insurance, they receive a bill, not a check. And only receive a payment if they incur a loss greater than a deductible amount chosen a year in advance.\u00a0 Just like homeowners insurance, farmers buy crop insurance hoping they won\u2019t have to use it, but rest better at night knowing they are more secure.<\/p>\n<p>Yes, this drought has been historic and is about as stubborn as a drought can be.\u00a0 But farmers are hardworking, honest and smart businessmen and women who have armed themselves with the best tools possible to weather this storm.\u00a0 And crop insurance has ensured that California\u2019s central valley will remain America\u2019s fruit and vegetable garden for generations to come.<\/p>\n<p><em>Todd Snider is a crop insurance agent, Kern County Farm Bureau director, Bakersfield Homeless Center director, and resides in Bakersfield, California.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>This <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bakersfield.com\/news\/opinion\/2015\/11\/03\/community-voices-11.html\">op-ed<\/a> appeared in the <strong><em>Bakersfield Californian<\/em><\/strong> on November 3, 2015.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>California\u2019s central valley has been called America\u2019s salad bowl, but honestly in the last four years, it looks more like a dust bowl than a vegetable garden.\u00a0 The historic drought [&hellip;]<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":52,"featured_media":6413,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-farm-policy","category-whats-cropping-up"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.0 - 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