Farmers in parts of Michigan could be the first in the world to get a discount on crop insurance for having healthy soil, according to state officials.
Michigan’s Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) is launching the Next Gen Crop Insurance Program for the 2027 crop year.
Tim Boring, the director of MDARD, says the program will base insurance premiums on a farms’ soil health.
“The end goal with this is driving more money to individual farms and into communities here,” Boring said.
According to a news release from MDARD, the program is based on research that shows using sustainable soil practices like reducing tillage, rotating crops and using cover crops help reduce risk associated with losing crops.
"That's going to decrease your weather risk. It's going to improve your profitability," Boring said. "It's going to ultimately lower the riskiness of your production."
Boring said the pilot program is a way for farmers to see tangible results for their work in regenerative agriculture.
"Current crop insurance programs don't take farms like mine into account," said Don Morse, a farmer who grows corns and soybeans in the Saginaw Bay Watershed. "Rewarding resilient farming practices is a positive step for agriculture."
The Resilience in Agriculture Lending and Insurance Coalition (RALIC) is a program that aims to make insurance and lending for farmers more sustainable. They are working with MDARD on the Next Gen Crop Insurance polit program.
“The current crop insurance system is based on a 10-year look-back that doesn’t recognize steps farmers are taking to improve soil health,” said Tina Owens, a leader of the RALIC program. “That's also why this program is the first of its kind, the first in the world.”
Owens says soil isn’t treated as a variable that has the power to shift the outcome of a farmer’s yield.
“It's treated like it's a concrete factory floor, when it's actually a living, breathing, integral part of what farmers grow,” Owens said.
From a risk perspective, Owens says insuring a farmer who uses regenerative soil practices is like insurance covering a non-smoker.
Owens says the goal is to expand the program to the entire state and beyond – but for now, the pilot is launching in Tuscola, Saginaw, Huron and Sanilac counties.
Corn and soybean farmers in can apply for the program on MDARD’s website.
