Our current insurance company doesn't write business insurance policies. They told me that I can cover the land as a rider on our home policy, but if we decide to make a business of it, we'll have to find insurance somewhere else. Got it. So I looked.
First I checked with Farm Bureau Insurance. You'd think, right? As it turns out, they're only interested if we cover the house with them too. I'm saving that as a last resort.
So I did some more checking, and found that State Farm has Farm and Ranch insurance (it's even called "Farm and Ranch"), and the closest agent is just a short walk from work. I walked over and talked to the agent. Nice guy. He called me back and said there's no way. What?! Because we're actually growing food - and people will actually eat it - their "Farm and Ranch" policy won't work. What do they think happens on farms?
I think the real reason, and he alluded to this, is the bean sprout / e. coli thing in Germany. Because, you know, those were 'organic' bean sprouts, and we're working on an 'organic' farm, so therefore we must be as dangerous as a farm that grows food in warm, wet, nutrient rich, barrels.
I try insurance company number four this Friday. Supposedly Nationwide has a set of policies for farms, and they say on their website that if you're growing unprocessed produce, you don't even need a separate product liability policy. We'll see.
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