Insurers Decline After Disasters Outpace Hailstorms
WORTHINGTON, Minnesota — After examining Republican tariffs, Democratic regulations, soaring fuel prices and disappearing export markets, farmers are considering a third option: purchasing political crop insurance. Every time Washington makes a decision that destroys agricultural profitability, farmers would receive compensation. Unfortunately, insurance companies rejected the proposal after discovering political disasters occur more frequently than hailstorms.
Co-Op Drafts Policy Over Coffee
The idea came out of a meeting in the basement of the Nobles County grain co-op, where roughly forty producers spent an evening comparing their federal crop insurance paperwork to their most recent tariff notices. Several noted that the federal policy covers drought, flood, hail and fire, but nothing issued from the Capitol.
“A farmer can plan around weather,” said Dale Heitkamp, a soybean grower who chaired the meeting. “Weather has the decency to show up in a forecast. A tariff announcement arrives before breakfast, and by lunch the beans are worth less than the bin they’re in.”
Policy Covers Tariffs, Rules and Diesel
Under the draft terms, a payout would trigger within thirty days of any federal action that reduces county yields, margins or export contracts. Claims would be filed on a single page. Fuel increases would be covered at the pump, with receipts. Producers said the premium would be priced against what they currently lose to Washington in an average year, which several estimated at roughly the cost of a new combine.
Poll Favors Hail Over Washington
A survey of 212 producers at the meeting and a nearby feed store found 91 percent would rather take hail than a federal rule change, and 64 percent said the damage looked the same afterward.
Insurers Cite Washington’s Frequency
Three carriers reviewed the proposal and declined. In a written statement, a spokesperson for one underwriter said the company modeled the risk using decades of congressional activity and found the numbers unworkable. “Hail is seasonal and regional,” the statement read. “Washington is neither. We cannot write a policy for a peril that occurs year-round in all fifty states and renews itself every two years.”
Heitkamp said the co-op will keep shopping the policy. In the meantime, members voted to renew their hail coverage and keep the draft on file, describing hail as the only disaster payout they can count on.
Five Observations From Farm Country
- Farmers insure against hail, drought and fire, but the thing that shows up every year is a press conference.
- Hail at least has the courtesy to leave after twenty minutes.
- Nobody opens a tariff notice and says, “Well, that’s an act of God.” You know exactly who did it. They have a podium.
- The insurer ran the numbers on Congress and walked away. Nobody on the Hill has ever read their own bill that carefully.
- Forty farmers, one pot of coffee, and they built a more workable plan than the people with the budget.
Last Updated on November 5, 2026 by Alan Nafzger