When was the last time you really looked over your farm’s insurance policy? When was the last time you read the fine print that details your farm pollution liability coverage?

Like no-tiller Marcy Little of Eaton, Ohio, you may be shocked to find out how little it covers.

She and her husband have been no-tilling 1,200 acres of corn and soybeans for more than 10 years. It wasn’t until they recently switched insurance agents that they discovered how little coverage they actually had to cover a farm chemical or fuel spill.

Pollution Liability Coverage

In reading over the details of their farm insurance policy, Little noticed that the pollution liability coverage was only $25,000. This came as a shock because she knows how expensive pollution cleanup costs can be and $25,000 didn’t seem like nearly enough. “You hear these horror stories about pollution cleanup and you think ‘Wow that can’t be good’,” she says.

Little found out from her insurance agent that an umbrella policy wouldn’t cover farm pollution liability and the largest amount of coverage she could get was $100,000.

“I was amazed. I can’t believe that the insurance companies don’t offer more coverage,” she says. In an attempt to reassure Little, her agent explained that there have only been two farm chemical claims in the history of his company. One was settled for less than $25,000 about 15 years ago and the other, occurred when a farmer apparently accidentally sprayed a neighbor’s garden and was settled for $500.