Crop Insurance in the United States
Federally subsidized crop insurance is available to farmers if their crop is an eligible crop for their area. The government provides 50% catastrophic coverage to farmers at no cost to the farmer. However, farmers can upgrade their coverage by purchasing additional insurance through crop insurance companies.
| Government Expenses of the Crop Insurance Program in the United States (1995-2010) | ||
|---|---|---|
| IndemnitiesIndemnities are the amount of money that is paid out by the Federal Government to farmers in claims of loss or damage to an insured crop. | $51,616,090,842 | |
| Administrative and Operating Expense ReimbursementsAmounts paid by the Federal Government to insurance companies to administer the crop insurance program. | $13,824,279,099 | |
| Other Federal ExpensesIncludes Federal administration and program costs as well as Emergency Financial Assistance (EFA) primarily in 1999-2000 which paid a percentage of farmer premiums. The EFA paid $855 million dollars in farmer premiums over the life of the program. | $2,618,503,799 | |
| Expenses to the Government | $68,058,873,739 | |
| Government Revenue of the Crop Insurance Program in the United States (1995-2010) | Farmer PremiumsAmount paid by farmers for insurance premiums | $27,689,036,443 |
| Government Earned Interest | $677,910,004 | |
| Revenue to the Government | $28,366,946,447 | |
| Cost of the Crop Insurance Program in the United States (1995-2010) | ||
| Cost to the Government* Underwriting Gains paid by the government to crop insurance companies are not included in this total - see methodology. Crop insurance companies were paid $12 billion nationally by the government in underwriting gains from 1995-2010 and is a cost not shown in this table. | $39,691,927,292 | |
Note: The information on conservation spending for 2010 is incomplete due to missing data from USDA's Natural Resource Conservation Service. Payment data currently are not included for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, but will be added once NRCS makes it available.
The information provided for the Wetland Reserve Program (WRP) provides an inaccurate picture of how WRP payments are distributed. USDA's Natural Resource Conservation Service uses title companies as intermediaries to finalize wetlands easements under the Wetlands Reserve Program. As a result, the data provided to us shows large sums of money going to these title companies. In reality, the payments are ultimately distributed to landowners participating in the WRP.
Unfortunately, NRCS has not provided the data to show where these farms and wetlands are located or which farmers or landowners are enrolling in the program, so EWG is unable to allocate these large sums of money to individuals beyond the title companies. Therefore, these companies skew the conservation rankings and payment concentration, which EWG cannot avoid unless and until NRCS makes available the additional farm attribution data. Therefore, we have not included WRP payments in the 2010 data update.
We have separated data on farm commodity, disaster and conservation payments in order to provide a more accurate picture of top recipients and concentration of payments among the three main categories of USDA programs.
Finally, EWG works hard to ensure the accuracy of the information it provides through its products and services, but obtains data for the Farm Subsidy Database from the U.S. Department of Agriculture pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act. Therefore, EWG cannot guarantee the accuracy of the information USDA provides or any analysis based thereon. If you find an error or discrepancy on the site, please contact your local USDA Farm Service Agency office to check its records before contacting EWG.
