La. Farm Bureau Looks at Crop Insurance for Oysters

The Louisiana Farm Bureau Federation is looking into setting up a crop insurance program to help oyster farmers get through years when their harvests are destroyed by disease or bad weather, according to the Associated Press.

“The insurance would provide some light at the end of the tunnel so that you can stay an oyster farmer, even if a storm comes along or a disease that destroys everything,” said Carolyn Falgout, a longtime oyster farmer who heads the state Farm Bureau’s oyster commodity board. “Right now when we have a loss, we suffer it all.”

Providing insurance for seafood producers is a relatively new concept.

“We’re farmers—we seed the beds, we plant cultch, we buy larva—just like a farmer does with sugar cane or soy beans,” Falgout said. “We’re doing it with boats instead of tractors.”

Falgout said oyster farmers need a backup to weather the hard times. She said oyster farmers have been racked with problems, ranging from hurricanes that dump silt and muck on oyster beds to the state taking waterbottoms away from oystermen for coastal restoration projects.

But oysters, unlike land-based crops, are not as vulnerable to the elements and disease, said John Taliancich, a 78-year-old Port Sulphur oyster farmer. In 50 years of farming, he said he has lost only one crop and that was when Hurricane Camille hit in 1969. “I’ve never had no problem.”

Nonetheless, Taliancich said it wouldn’t hurt to have an insurance program if the premiums are not too high.

Officials are studying ways to get the insurance through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Risk Management Agency, which handles insurance for a variety of farmers.

The program could be modeled after one in Florida that provides insurance for clam farmers.

“We’re kind of at ground zero on this. We have more questions than answers,” said Ron Harrell, director of the commodity division at the state Farm Bureau Federation.

To be eligible for payouts, an oyster farmer would have to prove that 50 percent of the crop was destroyed, Falgout said. Of course, farmers would need to pay premiums to get the insurance. Falgout said the insurance would mostly cover farmers who lease water bottoms from the state.

“This is not something for someone to make money; this is something to keep people in business,” she said.

Oystermen do not get subsidies from the state or federal governments, Falgout said.

Harrell said the Farm Bureau is bringing in an expert from the University of Florida’s farm extension program to discuss how the clam insurance program works there.

“The clam industry has kind of set the precedent,” Harrell said.

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