Proposed WEATHER Act Aims to Aid Small Farmers Hit by Extreme Weather

The new insurance program, if passed, would provide index-based payouts based on agricultural income, addressing the inadequacies of the current crop insurance program.

• Legislation introduced by Vermont U.S. Senators Peter Welch and Bernie Sanders, along with senators from Massachusetts, aims to create an insurance program for small produce farms facing losses from increasingly extreme weather.
• The proposed insurance program, called the Withstanding Extreme Agricultural Threats by Harvesting Economic Resilience (WEATHER) act, would be index-based with payouts based on agricultural income.
• The current crop insurance program is deemed inadequate as it requires farmers to identify how much of a crop was a particular vegetable and potentially only get the wholesale value, whereas many farms like Bear Roots Farm sell their produce retail.
• Extreme weather events in Vermont, including a frost in May and devastating floods in July, have caused significant losses for farmers. The flooding alone affected nearly 28,000 acres of farmland, causing over $16 million in losses and damage.
• A fundraising campaign launched earlier this month aims to raise $20 million for affected farmers, while the estimated need is nearly $45 million, according to the Vermont Agency of Agriculture Food & Markets.

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