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Fruit and Vegetables Farmers Find Difficulty Getting Crop Insurance

Fruit and Vegetables Farmers Find Difficulty Getting Crop Insurance

Farmers who grow fresh fruits and vegetables are often finding crop insurance prohibitively expensive — or even unavailable — as climate change escalates the likelihood of drought and floods capable of decimating harvests. Their predicament has left some small farmers questioning their future on the land. Efforts to increase the availability and affordability of crop insurance are being considered in Congress as part of the next farm bill, but divisions between the interests of big and small farmers loom over the debate. The threat to farms from climate change is not hypothetical. A 2021 study from researchers at Stanford University found that rising temperatures were responsible for 19 percent of the $27 billion in crop insurance payouts from 1991 to 2017 and concluded that additional warming substantially increases the likelihood of future crop losses. About 85 percent of the nation’s commodity crops — which include row crops like corn, soybeans and wheat — are insured, according to the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, a nonprofit promoting environmentally friendly food production. In contrast, barely half the land devoted to specialty crops — supermarket staples like strawberries, apples, asparagus and peaches — was insured in 2022, federal statistics show. Among those going without insurance is Bernie Smiarowski, who farms potatoes on 700 acres in western Massachusetts, along with 12 acres for strawberries. His soil is considered some of the nation’s most fertile. The trade-off is the proximity to the Connecticut River, a bargain that grows more tenuous as a warming world heightens the likelihood of flooding. Mr. Smiarowski lost nearly $1.25 million worth of potatoes to floods last year, when heavy rains pummeled the area and water from the river seeped into his fields. It was the third straight year of challenging weather. “We had two extremely wet years, sandwiched around one of the driest years I’ve ever seen,” he said. “We can’t sustain another year like last year.” Even in an ordinary year, his expenses of $2,000 an acre yield returns ranging from a 20 percent profit to just breaking even. Mr. Smiarowski said the least expensive plans quoted to him — around $170 an acre annually — would be a significant outlay but would cover only 60 percent of the potatoes’ wholesale price. He sees the case for insurance, but for now, he’s simply hoping for the best. And specialty farmers say few agents will work with them. “I know of only one in the state,” said Mike Koeppl, who grows strawberries on seven acres near Oshkosh, Wis. Their reluctance is financial, experts say. Agents make more money insuring vast tracts of corn and soybeans. The average American farm is 445 acres, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, but the average specialty farm is considerably smaller. And most insurance plans cover a single crop, meaning specialty farmers growing a variety of fruits and vegetables need to buy multiple policies. Companies offering crop insurance stress that their plans must offer payouts that roughly equal the insurance premiums taken in. Kristen Ward, regional vice president for crop insurance for Farm Credit Mid-America, said that her company worked with farmers in six states, covering crops from barley to grapes, but that it could not do so in places where conditions were not conducive to specialty fruits and vegetables. Premiums offered to farmers are based on risk, “which is rated accordingly for where the crop is grown,” she said. “That may look different in a different parts of the country.” Products to fill such gaps have emerged, including whole farm revenue protection, a comprehensive insurance policy for farms growing multiple crops. More than 220,000 American farms grow specialty crops, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation, a trade group. But only 18,659 whole farm revenue plans have been sold in the decade they have been offered, federal statistics show. Advocates for the small specialty farmers are looking to Washington for relief. The federal crop insurance program was born during the Great Depression, when the Dust Bowl ravaged the farm belt. Under the $18 billion program, the government pays half a farmer’s crop insurance premium to guarantee a secure food supply. In December, Congress extended the current farm bill through 2024, but lawmakers have been unable to agree on what will follow. The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition recently released a set of recommendations including easing access to whole farm revenue insurance and expanding disaster relief. “Floods, drought and hurricanes are all becoming more frequent and strong,” said Billy Hackett, a policy specialist for the coalition. “That’s why it’s important to have a safety net.” Senator Debbie Stabenow, a Michigan Democrat, has proposed language in the farm bill giving specialty farmers access to highly subsidized insurance policies and streamlining the application process for products like whole farm revenue coverage. “I will always fight to make sure that specialty crops are a central part of farm policy,” Ms. Stabenow said in a statement. A stand-alone bill, whose co-sponsors include Senator Cory Booker, Democrat of New Jersey, provides incentives for insurance agents to work with small and specialty crop farmers. The bill bases subsidies on the complexity of an insurance plan, rather than the size of the premium. But commodity farmers are wary of modifications to the crop insurance program. Growers of corn, soybeans and wheat worry about “changing how the program functions broadly in a way that sets everyone back rather than helping to fill the gaps that exist for certain crops,” said Danny Munch, an economist for the American Farm Bureau Federation. Some lawmakers oppose changes because of those concerns. “For years, Iowa farmers have told me to leave crop insurance alone in the next farm bill,” Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa — a state heavily dependent on commodity crops like corn and soybeans — said in a statement. “There’s no need to fiddle with something that’s not broken.” The impasse has led some farmers to pursue other sorts of assistance. After Mr. Smiarowski’s Massachusetts crop was ruined last year, he and other farmers affected by the flood appealed to Gov. Maura Healey for help, which came in the form of disaster relief. Mr. Smiarowski was grateful, but he said his share covered only about 20 percent of his losses. The support was also temporary, leaving him with no option but to wish for more favorable weather in the future. “When times are bad, you get what you can and you hope for a better year next year,” he said.    
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Insurers Could Face Losses of Up to $4B after Baltimore Bridge Tragedy

Insurers Could Face Losses of Up to $4B after Baltimore Bridge Tragedy

Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse could cost insurers billions of dollars in claims, analysts say, with one putting it at as much as $4 billion, which would make the tragedy a record shipping insurance loss. Six people are still missing after a collision with a Singapore-flagged container ship destroyed the landmark bridge on Tuesday, forcing the closure of one of the busiest U.S. ports. With little clarity on when the Port of Baltimore would re-open, insurers and analysts are now assessing the likely losses borne by underwriters across several product lines including property, cargo, marine, liability, trade credit and contingent business interruption. "Depending on the length of the blockage and the nature of the business interruption coverage for the Port of Baltimore, insured losses could total between $2 billion and $4 billion," said Marcos Alvarez, managing director for global insurance ratings at Morningstar DBRS. That would surpass the record insured losses of the Costa Concordia luxury cruise liner disaster in 2012, he said. Mathilde Jakobsen, senior director, analytics at insurance ratings agency AM Best, also said the claims would likely run into "billions of dollars". Ship liability insurance, which covers marine environmental damage and injury, is provided through protection and indemnity insurers known as P&I Clubs. The International Group of P&I Clubs collectively insures approximately 90% of the world's ocean-going tonnage and member P&I clubs mutually reinsure each other by sharing claims above $10 million. The IG Group declined to comment. According to AM Best, the group holds general excess of loss reinsurance cover up to the value of $3.1 billion. Moody's Ratings analyst Brandan Holmes said approximately 80 different reinsurers provided that cover to the ship's insurers. "While the total claim is expected to be high, it is unlikely to be significant for individual reinsurers since it will be spread across so many," he said. Insurer Britannia P&I said in a statement that vessel, named the Dali, was entered with the club, adding that it was working closely with the ship manager and relevant authorities "to establish the facts and to help ensure that this situation is dealt with quickly and professionally". Loretta Worters, spokesperson at the Insurance Information Institute, said AXA XL was the lead reinsurer on the first layer of cover for IG's reinsurance programme, with other global reinsurers also involved. AXA XL did not immediately respond to request for comment. Alvarez said the disaster would likely put upward pressure on marine insurance rates globally. Worters added she believed Aon was the insurance broker for the property policy for the bridge. Insurance Insider reported that Chubb was the lead underwriter for the policy. Aon and Chubb declined to comment. Initial estimates of the cost of rebuilding the bridge, which is likely to be paid by the federal government, are at $600 million, economic software analysis company IMPLAN said. The closure of the port for just one month could see a total loss of $28 million for the state of Maryland, according to IMPLAN analysis. "The economic disruption and pain felt by businesses and individuals in Maryland and the Baltimore economic area will be widespread and likely take years to fully comprehend and compensate those affected," said Julien Horn, partner, Ports & Terminals and Logistics, at insurance broker McGill and Partners.
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Port of Baltimore’s Indefinite Closure Deals Blow to City, State Economy

Port of Baltimore’s Indefinite Closure Deals Blow to City, State Economy

The collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge on Tuesday after it was struck by a container ship has disrupted the Port of Baltimore’s container shipping services, which will impact the economy of the city and beyond, analysts said.

Six people are missing and presumed dead after the Singapore-flagged MV Dali slammed into the bridge in the early morning hours, sending debris into the Patapsco River that continues to block a large portion of the channel that leads into Baltimore’s harbor.

The state of Maryland and the U.S. Department of Transportation announced the closure of the shipping lane to the port until further notice as the investigation, recovery and cleanup get underway.

Economist Anirban Basu said that along with the Johns Hopkins Health System, the Port of Baltimore is one of the main drivers of the city and state economy, and its indefinite closure will impact jobs and revenue across the region.

Baltimore is the largest city in Maryland, with a population of about 576,000. It has more than 2.8 million in its metropolitan area.

“I would say the Port of Baltimore is the leading economic driver for the region in Baltimore,” Basu, chairman and CEO of Baltimore-based Sage Policy Group Inc., told FreightWaves. “One could argue that the leading driver is Johns Hopkins. It’s a difficult comparison, because you’re talking about two very different fields of endeavor. But the Baltimore region has been one of the nation’s underperformers in recent years. In the Baltimore region, we have had to clawback the jobs lost early during the pandemic.”

The port is the deepest harbor in Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay, with five public and 12 private terminals. It handled over $80 billion worth of cargo in 2023. It serves more than 50 ocean carriers making nearly 1,800 annual port calls.

The port generated nearly $3.3 billion in total personal income and supports 15,330 direct jobs and 139,180 jobs connected to the port, according to state data.

“If you were to compare the jobs in the Baltimore region in February of 2020 just before the pandemic, to February of 2024, the Baltimore region is down 34,900 jobs, the state of Maryland is down 41,100 jobs, while the nation is up 5.5 million jobs during this period …,” Basu said. “But one thing we could say in Baltimore was that we are anchored by the Port of Baltimore, that whatever has happened with our corporate headquarters, many of them have just disappeared, but the Port of Baltimore was not going anywhere.”

According to recent data from Implan, the port’s 15,000-plus direct employees could lose an estimated $275 million in labor income if container operations are down for a month.

Implan is a Huntersville, North Carolina-based economic software and analysis firm.

“Before we even performed the analysis, we knew this event would have a negligible loss to the U.S. gross domestic product,” Candi Clouse, Implan’s vice president of customer success and education services, told FreightWaves. “The logistics and shipping will just shift to another U.S. port temporarily. However, the potential impact to Maryland is something to keep an eye on. Even if the port is only closed for 30 days, Maryland would be at risk for losing $550 million to its gross domestic product and $1 billion loss in total value of goods and services.”

Basu said how much the ship channel’s closure disrupts the city and state’s economy depends on how long until the port is fully operational.

The federal Bureau of Transportation Statistics said as of noon Tuesday, three bulk carriers, one vehicle carrier, two general cargo ships, one oil/chemical tanker and three logistics naval vessels were stuck behind the fallen bridge in the port. One vehicle carrier was in the port but outside the bridge, and nine bulk carriers, one vehicle carrier and two general cargo vessels were anchored.

“The short-term effects are very large. … There is a significant amount of cargo being diverted away from the Port of Baltimore to other ports, who are often competitors,” Basu said. “This impact is multimodal, because not only is the ocean carrier community impacted by this, but so too is rail transport, trucking and even air cargo, including cargo operations at Baltimore-Washington International Airport.”

With 31,000 vehicles per day crossing the Francis Scott Key Bridge, it is a major conduit for traffic in the region. Basu pointed to several ways trucking operations at the port and in the area will be affected.

The port is not only adjacent to I-95, it’s in the proximity of I-70, and so it’s a major way for northwest and east-to-west routes,” Basu said. “One would think that the trucking community would be quite meaningfully impacted as would distributors located in the region. Distribution is going to be less efficient, given lengthier travel times, both into the distribution centers and from the distribution centers.”

Supply chain visibility platform project44 released a report detailing how an estimated $1 billion per week in goods will be affected by the bridge collapse and indefinite suspension of container activities at the port.

“The Port of Baltimore handles freight from major automakers including, but not limited to, Nissan, Toyota, General Motors, and Volvo,” the project44 report said. “Expect disruptions to manufacturing in the automobile market until companies can establish dray networks through neighboring ports.”

Rerouting the port’s container cargo to ports in New York and New Jersey, Philadelphia, or Virginia could push up some trucking and rail prices in the short term, according to Tony Thrasher, senior director of product management at SPS Commerce.

“In the short-term, there is an impact on exporting/importing goods and services,” Thrasher said in an email to FreightWaves. “However, once things get cleaned up, and other routes out of the port are determined, operations will resume and the initial downtime will be over. Operations won’t be as efficient, and there will be additional costs to use other ports that are further away. Retailers that have prepared for disasters will navigate this disruption fine.”

Minneapolis-based SPS Commerce provides cloud-based supply chain management software to retailers, suppliers and 3PLs.

“Since we are in March, retailers are not in the crazy holiday rush yet, so I see this impact being short-term and not hurting big retailers,” Thrasher said. “I don’t think consumers will see the impact either. Retailers will have to deal with it, but the delays will not be enough for consumers to feel.”

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Explosive Atlantic Hurricane Season Predicted for 2024: AccuWeather

Explosive Atlantic Hurricane Season Predicted for 2024: AccuWeather

The scene is being set for a turbulent year in the tropics, one that could approach a record-setting pace that may exhaust the entire list of names for tropical storms and hurricanes -- and then some. The Atlantic hurricane season officially gets underway on June 1 and runs through the end of November, and AccuWeather's team of long-range forecasters say now is the time to prepare for a frenzy of tropical systems. There are signs that the first named system could spin up before the season kicks off as the calendar flips to June, a precursor of what's to come. "The 2024 Atlantic hurricane season is forecast to feature well above the historical average number of tropical storms, hurricanes, major hurricanes and direct U.S. impacts," AccuWeather Lead Hurricane Forecaster Alex DaSilva said. This echoes the early warning AccuWeather issued in late February, ringing the alarm bells about the potential for a surge in tropical activity. Last hurricane season featured 19 named storms, but there were only four direct U.S. impacts. Hurricane Idalia was the storm of the year, which slammed into Florida as a powerful Category 3 hurricane in late August. Additionally, Tropical Storm Harold drenched southern Texas, and Tropical Storm Ophelia made landfall in North Carolina. Lee also swiped the New England coast as a tropical rainstorm before making landfall in Nova Scotia, Canada. All signs continue to point toward the upcoming season being worse than the last, with the potential for the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season to rank as one of the most active in history.

Driving factors for a hyperactive hurricane season

Warm water is fuel for tropical systems, and there will be plenty of warm water for fledgling systems to tap into and strengthen. "Sea-surface temperatures are well above historical average across much of the Atlantic basin, especially across the Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean and the Main Development Region [for hurricanes]," DaSilva explained. The Atlantic water temperatures observed in March were around or even warmer than they were in March ahead of the blockbuster 2005 and 2020 hurricane seasons. Not only will this promote frequent development, but it will increase the potential for systems to undergo rapid intensification, a phenomenon that has occurred in recent years with historic hurricanes. In 2020, Hurricane Laura was in the Gulf of Mexico and was making a beeline toward southwestern Louisiana. In just 24 hours, it rapidly intensified from a Category 1 hurricane with winds of 85 mph to a menacing Category 4 storm with winds of 150 mph -- 7 mph shy of Category 5 status. Unusually warm water could also help to spawn tropical systems in November when the Atlantic hurricane season is winding down. The other major factor in AccuWeather's Atlantic hurricane forecast is hitched to the Pacific Ocean. Water near the equator of the eastern Pacific is in the process of quickly flipping from El Niño, when temperatures in this area are higher than historical averages, to La Niña, when temperatures in this zone are lower than long-term normals. This swift transition may have significant implications across the Atlantic Ocean. La Niña results in less disruptive winds, known as wind shear, over most of the Atlantic basin. "It can be helpful to visualize a stack of pancakes," DaSilva explained. When there is a high amount of wind shear, the top of a tropical system can be pushed and tilted away from its base, causing it to become lopsided. If a mature hurricane is in place, it may weaken but will not necessarily dissipate. "A tall, neat stack is what a tropical system wants to be, but wind shear can cause some pancakes to be displaced and the stack could fall over," said DaSilva. The faster the transition to La Niña occurs, the more active the hurricane season is likely to be. La Niña was present during the 2020, 2021 and 2022 Atlantic hurricane seasons, all of which featured near or well above the historical average of 14 named storms. The 2020 season is tied with the historic 2005 season for the highest number of named storms, with 30.

How many tropical storms and hurricanes are predicted in 2024?

AccuWeather meteorologists are forecasting 20-25 named storms across the Atlantic basin in 2024, including 8-12 hurricanes, four to seven major hurricanes and four to six direct U.S. impacts. This is all above the 30-year historical average of 14 named storms, seven hurricanes, three major hurricanes and four direct U.S. impacts. With so many factors that could bolster development, there is the potential that there could be even more than 25 named storms in 2024. "There is a 10-15% chance of 30 or more named storms this year," DaSilva said. In addition to the number of storms and hurricanes, AccuWeather is predicting an Accumulated Cyclone Energy (ACE) of 175-225, above the historical average of 123. ACE measures the intensity and longevity of tropical systems throughout the year, making it a reliable way to quantify the true strength of a hurricane season. A powerful, long-lived hurricane will generate a large amount of ACE, while a short-lived tropical storm will only generate a small amount of ACE.

What areas of the US have the highest hurricane risk in 2024?

"The Texas coast, Florida Panhandle, South Florida and the Carolinas are at a higher-than-average risk of direct impacts this season," DaSilva said. While these four areas are at an elevated risk for a direct strike from a tropical system, residents near other coastal locations should remain vigilant. "All residents and interests along the U.S. coast, including Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, should have a hurricane plan in place and always be fully prepared for a direct impact.," DaSilva added. One tool meteorologists use to create long-range forecasts is analyzing analog years, or past years when the weather patterns were similar to current conditions. An analog year for this season is 2016 -- a year when Hurricane Matthew barreled over Hispaniola and eastern Cuba before taking a swipe at Florida's Atlantic coast. The Category 5 hurricane was the most powerful storm of that season, which took place during La Niña, similar to what is predicted to happen this year.

What happens if there are more than 21 storms and we run out of names?

With AccuWeather experts predicting 20-25 named storms, meteorologists could run out of names to use for tropical storms and hurricanes. Although the alphabet has 26 letters, Q, U, X, Y and Z are skipped, leaving 21 names. So what happens when we run out? The Greek alphabet was used in the past to name storms, starting with Alpha, but that rule was changed by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in 2021. "The use of the Greek alphabet was not expected to be frequent enough to warrant any change in the existing naming procedure," the WMO said on its website. "However, after the record-breaking 2020 season, the WMO Regional Association IV Hurricane Committee annual session in 2021 decided to end the use of the Greek alphabet and instead established two lists of supplemental tropical cyclone names, one for the Atlantic, one for the Pacific." The supplemental list of names is also in alphabetical order, starting with the name Adria. If there are at least 22 named storms in the Atlantic this season, 2024 will be the first time the supplemental list is used.    
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