I sent through a reply this morning but it doesn't seem to have gone
through. I'll try again, but here's an advance apology if things go
through twice.
You are correct that we did have
a lot up in the air earlier this year; I'm happy to report most of those
questions have now been answered. However, I don't think that's the
issue. And this goes way beyond meat production, and way beyond local
regulations. Some other activities which are specifically listed as
reasons to deny a policy:
on-farm grain
drying
any kind of fruit juice, unless
it's pasteurized
repair of machinery for a fee
(for instance, if folks repair farm implements for other folks during the
winter)horseback riding lessons, horse training for others, and/or horse
boarding
In addition to the above, sometimes a product or activity is
allowed, but only if I followed the insurance company's procedure.
So I can do turkeys and chicken, but only if the birds leave the
property for slaughtering and don't come back. That's in direct conflict
with state law, for any state with on-farm small-scale slaughter
exemptions. Similarly, I can do grains, but only if the grains
leave the property right after harvest to be dried off-site. That rules
out any sort of on-farm value-added processing; it may also rule out drying
and storage for our own use. I can do hay, as long as the bales are
stored in the field. If I wanted to store hay in a barn close to
the house, I'd have to exclude the barn from coverage. If I wanted to
protect the barn, I'd have to find another place to cover/protect my hay.
I found myself wondering how many folks are going to be progressively
excluded from more and more typical farm operations as they acquire or renew
policies, because of these kinds of ever-tightening criteria.
Since the FSMA is very heavy on procedural changes and verification, I
found myself wondering if the next wave of insurance leverage would be (or
might already be) to deny coverage if farms didn't follow certain
insurance-company-mandated procedures with their veggie
handling. If the kinds of discrepancies I've seen in meat
production are any indicator, insurance company procedures for fresh veggie
production won't match state/federal regs. Under that
scenario, folks will have to decide if they're going to comply with FSMA, or
be insured. My concern is that they won't be able to do both.
If this isn't an issue yet with fresh produce, that's good news at least
in the short term. But the list of excluded activities is getting longer
by the day. I can't imagine fresh produce is going to escape the
attention of the insurance industry for very long. I suggest folks
keep an eye out for these developments. I'd also suggest folks who
already have insurance, check to see what might have recently been excluded
from coverage under a general umbrella policy. For each of these
specifically excluded items, we can get additional policies just for those
items. But of course at additional, and sometimes much higher cost.
That's where I think this is going. Individual itemized coverage
for each type of farm activity, and the small guy will be priced out of the
market. I hope I'm proven wrong.
Kathryn Kerby
frogchorusfarm.com
Snohomish, WA