Ernest Fulford, a peanut and cotton grower in Jefferson County, Florida, is reluctantly hoping for a hurricane. Last fall, storms devastated his 1,600-acre family farm, flooding freshly dug peanuts and ruining cotton bolls just weeks before harvest. Thanks to a crop insurance payout, the farm—held by his family since the 1940s—remained afloat.
The Federal Crop Insurance Program, which costs the government about $9 billion annually, has so far avoided budget cuts under the Trump Administration. However, climate change is expected to increase the program’s cost by up to a third by 2080, according to the USDA Economic Research Service.
Despite this growing investment, the program struggles to meet the needs of small farmers like Fulford, especially those facing repeated storm damage.
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