The thin green line

There exists a thin green line in American agriculture, the line between a farmer's ability to keep going, and bankruptcy.

It is called crop insurance. Without crop insurance, the U.S. landscape would be littered with bankrupt farms and, not coincidentally, grocery store shelves would be empty. What food there was would cost much more.

In Congress, which is where noisy debates about crop insurance usually take place, representatives and senators have divided themselves into two camps - those who are in favor of keeping crop insurance affordable by subsidizing it, and those who oppose subsidies for crop insurance and believe farmers should pay the full premiums without help from taxpayers.

We commend to their attention a report the American Farm Bureau Federation recently authored. It added up the damage done to U.S. farms and ranches last year. The total: $22 billion.

That includes crop losses caused by drought, storms, wildfires, hail and hurricanes.

It doesn't include damages to infrastructure, livestock or timber, because they are too hard to pin down.

According to the Farm Bureau, the crop losses that could be tallied included corn, $4.5 billion; forage, $4.2 billion; wheat, $3.5 billion; cotton, $3 billion; and soybeans, $2.9 billion.

All told, those five crops alone had losses of $18.1 billion. In one year.

Thank goodness federally subsidized crop insurance was available to help farmers and ranchers survive so they can plant another crop. A little more than half of all losses - 55% - were covered by crop insurance.

What the weather will do next year, we can't say, but we do know that multi-year droughts have become a standing feature in some parts of the nation.

Texas alone had $4.8 billion in losses last year, with 80% caused by drought. Kansas had $3.04 billion in losses. Nebraska had $1.3 billion in losses.

A note about the weather. Folks who live on the East Coast or West Coast have a hard time grasping the violence of weather in the Midwest, West and South.

Tornadoes, hurricanes, hail, rain so heavy it's like standing under a bucket and lightning that fills the night sky like a strobe light - kick the living hell out of farms every year. A storm can convert a perfect crop ready for harvest into trash in a few minutes.

When it comes to the weather, it's not a matter of if, but when the next storm, or drought, will come along. That's what makes crop insurance unique compared to any other type of insurance.

Crops are destroyed, equipment is wrecked, houses and outbuildings are flattened - there is no way a farmer can survive that without help.

Without crop insurance, farmers around the nation couldn't survive.

Those in Congress who doubt the value of crop insurance shouldn't take our word alone. They should talk to farmers and ranchers who, year after year, pick up the pieces after a storm or drought and start over in an effort to keep food on their tables, and everyone else's.