Farmers: Is Crop Insurance Working For You?

Samara Freemark
Reporter
Public Insight Network
Farmer Marion Kujawa looks over an ear of corn picked from one of his fields this week near Ashley, Ill. According to the Illinois Farm Bureau the state is experiencing its sixth driest year on record. (Photo by Scott Olson | Getty Images)

Farmer Marion Kujawa looks over an ear of corn picked from one of his fields this week near Ashley, Ill. According to the Illinois Farm Bureau the state is experiencing its sixth driest year on record. (Photo by Scott Olson | Getty Images)

If you’re a farmer, it’s not news to you that we’re in the middle of one of the worst droughts of the century. It hasn’t been this dry since 1956 – 55 percent of the continental United States was in moderate to extreme drought by of the end of June. Just this week, NPR interviewed Ohio farmer (and Public Insight Network source!) Bryn Bird, who said she’ll lose most of her sweet corn crop this year.

The photos and stories of dried-out fields and farmers selling off livestock got me thinking about crop insurance — specifically, that I didn’t have the faintest idea how it actually worked.

Crop insurance comes up in the news primarily when weather conditions are dreadful or Congress is debating a new Farm Bill, but few people who aren’t involved in agriculture understand it at all. This is a massive government policy, involving billions of taxpayer dollars.

That’s why we’re asking people who understand crop insurance — farmers, insurers, policy makers — to help us explain what even non-farmers should know about crop insurance. Please share your personal experience here, and we might contact you to find out more information for my story. Thanks so much for providing your insight.

>>  Farmers: Is crop insurance working for you?

 

 

 

 

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Samara Freemark Reporter
Public Insight Network

Reporter/producer Samara Freemark joined the Public Insight Network after four years at Radio Diaries in New York City, where she spent her time helping ordinary people tell their extraordinary stories for NPR. In the process, she developed an unshakeable belief in the beauty and power of personal narrative.

Before Radio Diaries Samara worked as an environmental reporter, a posting that took her to sinking islands, Superfund sites, and literal snakepits – Burmese pythons, to be exact. She also churned out copy and tape in the newsroom of WUOM Ann Arbor. Before settling on a career in radio she tried out policy research, community organizing, and urban planning before deciding she preferred soundwaves to spreadsheets.