Across the West, farmers are trying to adapt to weather patterns that are changing rapidly.
“When I'm expecting drought, I don't see drought,” said Tiana Suazo, who runs the Red Willow Center farm in Taos Pueblo. “When I'm expecting rain, I don't see rain.”
The challenges she is facing are making farming more expensive, both for farmers and for the taxpayer whose money subsidizes increased insurance indemnity as more crops are lost to rising heat.
A new study by the nonprofit the Environmental Working group found that across six Western states (Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah) average temperatures rose in 212 of 216 counties between 2001 and 2021.
Heat, along with drought and failure of irrigation, cost about $4 billion in insurance indemnities over the 20-year period studied. And heat-related crop insurance payouts went up in most agricultural counties.
Many of those payouts and insurance premiums are subsidized by the government. The report found that federal payments for heat-related losses to these counties during the period studied totaled $1.32 billion.
The report’s authors call for a refocusing of government support away from subsidies and toward more sustainable and adaptive farming techniques.
