As extreme weather increasingly threatens crops, study finds taxpayers pay the price
Crop insurance payouts surpassed $118 billion between 2001 and 2022 nationally for damage caused by extreme weather like drought, heat and floods. The report, released this week by the advocacy organization Environmental Working Group, points to climate change’s increasing impacts to agriculture. The findings follow a tumultuous growing season, wrought with extreme drought ravaging the Midwest and much of the surrounding Mississippi River basin. … Hail payments were largely concentrated in the Great Plains and Montana, with smaller pockets in Iowa and Minnesota. Indemnities related to heat and freeze were concentrated in California, Texas, Kansas and Washington.