U.S. Department of Agriculture

• FSU Develops Metric To Better Gauge Destructive Potential of Hurricanes

  By Staff Writer  |  April 24, 2013

  TIKE is intended to offer more skillful predictions of storm's wrath while helping improve global climate models.

• Climate Change & Insurance: Existential Threat—or Extraordinary Opportunity?

  By Bryant Rousseau, PropertyCasualty360.com  |  February 5, 2013

  Few—if any—industries would seem to face a greater existential threat from the effects of climate change than insurance. As flood waters rise, as hurricanes and tornadoes grow more intense and as droughts last longer, trillions of dollars of insured assets are at risk. In the ugliest scenario imaginable, even the...

• Crop Losses Hit Insurance Earnings for Wells Fargo

  By Mark E. Ruquet, PropertyCasualty360.com  |  January 18, 2013

  Fourth-quarter earnings in Wells Fargo’s insurance segment dropped 15 percent over the same period in 2011 due to crop-insurance losses, the company says.

• Drought-Induced Crop Losses Could Climb To $5B, S&P Says

  By Mark E. Ruquet, PropertyCasualty360.com  |  August 29, 2012

  Insured crop losses caused by the worst drought since 1988 could cost insurers and reinsurers more than $5 billion.

• S&P Says Crop Losses Could Cost Insurers $5 Billion-Plus

  By Mark E. Ruquet, PropertyCasualty360.com  |  August 21, 2012

  A report from Standard & Poor’s says insured crop losses caused by the worst drought since 1988 could cost insurers and reinsurers more than $5 billion.

• Little Relief Seen from U.S. Drought Despite Cooler Trend

  By Sam Nelson, Reuters  |  August 14, 2012

  Midday weather maps indicate drier conditions this week for the already drought-stricken U.S. crop region than earlier forecasts had shown, an agricultural meteorologist said on Tuesday.

• Insurers to Absorb Crop Losses Without Capital Hit, Says Fitch

  By Chad Hemenway, PropertyCasualty360.com  |  July 23, 2012

  Fitch Ratings says net losses to private crop insurers will likely be an earnings event rather than a capital event.

• As Crop Losses Mount, Farmers Seen Quicker to Claim

  By Ben Berkowitz, Reuters, Tom Polansek, Reuters  |  July 20, 2012

  The drought ravaging America's prime farmland is having an unexpected consequence that could shape the future of agricultural finance: in some cases, farmers who have amped up their insurance coverage may be giving up on their crops early rather than to trying to save them.

• Featured Fraud: Seeds of Deception

  By Christina Bramlet, PropertyCasualty360.com  |  June 11, 2012

  The owners of a Homestead, Fla. nursery have sown the seeds of lengthy prison sentences after executing a con that siphoned a cool million from a federal disaster fund.

• Featured Fraud: Seeds of Deception

  By Christina Bramlet, PropertyCasualty360.com  |  May 31, 2012

  This Fla. couple defrauded a federal fund established for hurricane victims out of more than $1M. They now await sentencing after entering a guilty plea.

• GAO Says Government Should Cap Crop-Insurance-Premium Subsidies

  By Arthur D. Postal, PropertyCasualty360.com  |  April 12, 2012

  The Government Accountability Office said today in a new report that the government should consider capping crop-insurance-premium subsidies for individual farmers or reducing subsidies for all farmers, or both.

• 2011 Crop Insurance Claims Payments Could Impact Regional Insurers

  By Phil Gusman, PropertyCasualty360.com  |  February 2, 2012

  National Crop Insurance Services (NCIS) says indemnity payments in 2011 surpassed $9 billion for the first time in history—and Moody’s Investors Service says this development could put smaller, geographically concentrated insurers at risk.

• 2011 Crop Insurance Claims Payments Could Impact Regional Insurers

  By Phil Gusman, PropertyCasualty360.com  |  January 30, 2012

  National Crop Insurance Services says indemnity payments surpassed $9 billion for the first time in history in 2011, and Moody’s Investors Service says this development could put smaller, geographically concentrated insurers at risk.

• Featured Fraud: Cropping Out the Truth

  By Catherine Couretas, PropertyCasualty360.com  |  August 12, 2011

  A Colorado couple and their insurer both owe the U.S. money after false crop insurance claims were paid out.

• Agents Seek To Protect Crop-Insurance Servicing Role

  By Arthur D. Postal, PropertyCasualty360.com  |  May 24, 2011

  Agent associations are criticizing what they say are federal efforts to strip away crop-insurance servicing components from their members.

• QBE To Acquire RenaissanceRe's U.S. P&C Operations

  By Arthur D. Postal, PropertyCasualty360.com  |  November 18, 2010

  QBE Insurance Group today announced its acquisition of the U.S. insurance operations of Bermuda-based RenaissanceRe, including Iowa-based crop insurer Agro National, for approximately $275 million.