Extreme weather is destroying more crops. Taxpayers are footing the bill.

[marmar]

(Grist) Farmers across the United States are increasingly seeing the impacts of climate change first hand, with a rise in the severity and frequency of extreme weather events. Beyond the loss of food supplies, new data on agricultural insurance payments shows the financial burden of these disasters on taxpayers.

Over the last 25 years, insurance payments to farmers for crop losses due to drought and flooding have increased threefold, according to a report from the Environmental Working Group, or EWG, an environmental research advocacy group based in Washington, D.C. Taxpayers cover 60 percent of crop insurance premiums through subsidies, and additionally cover damages that exceed premiums. Since 1995, more than $143 billion in federal crop insurance has been paid out to U.S. farmers. Of that, 61 percent, or $87.6 billion, was due to climate change-related impacts.

“As extreme weather has become more frequent, the climate crisis has already increased insurance payments and premium subsidies,” the report stated. “These costs are expected to go up even more, as climate change causes even more unpredictable weather conditions.”

Insuring the country’s crops, the report says, is likely to get more expensive for everyone: insurance companies, farmers, and especially taxpayers. And farmers currently aren’t required to do anything to remediate their risk for crop damage. ................(more)

https://grist.org/agriculture/extreme-weather-is-destroying-more-crops-taxpayers-are-footing-the-bill/