How Farmers Get Stuck In Mono Crop Culture

The vast majority of farmers and ranchers have to borrow money every year in order to get a crop in the ground and in order to keep operating. Those lending institutions, they're only going to lend to them if they take out revenue insurance, in other words, federal crop insurance. Well, federal crop insurance dictates which crops they're going to and the amount they're going to pay to farmers. So farmers know, well, I've got a proven history of growing this much. I can go in and sign up, pay this type of a premium of which the federal government subsidizes approximately two-thirds the cost. That's coming from the taxpayer. So your insurance premium for the insurance is paid for by the taxpayer? Approximately two-thirds of it. Yes, approximately. And they know as long as they keep their expenses below that, the government's going to give them a check. Well, the banker tells them, you better do that or we won't loan you the money. Farmers and ranchers are stuck there. But what we're seeing now is a growing number of farmers and ranchers that are saying, no, this isn't right. We can't continue down this path.