A gambling career with a gardening hobby
September 12, 2024 10:43 AM Subscribe
Wrecked rain gauges. Whistleblowers. Million-dollar payouts and manhunts. Then a Colorado crop fraud got really crazy. The sordid story of two ranchers who conspired to falsify drought numbers by tampering with rain gauges on the plains of Colorado and Kansas, resulting in millions in false insurance claims. By Michael Booth for the Colorado Sun.
Well, that goes off the rails pretty quickly
posted by Windopaene at 11:54 AM on September 12
posted by Windopaene at 11:54 AM on September 12
Need to get the Coen brothers back together for the movie (I don't want the fully miserable Joel Coen version).
posted by grandiloquiet at 12:13 PM on September 12 [1 favorite]
posted by grandiloquiet at 12:13 PM on September 12 [1 favorite]
And this is the sort of stuff I point to whenever people complain about governmental rules being onerous "and lacking common sense"
posted by drewbage1847 at 12:27 PM on September 12 [2 favorites]
posted by drewbage1847 at 12:27 PM on September 12 [2 favorites]
Honest stealing by God-fearing patriots is not welfare! /s
I could imagine Australasian farmers doing this BUT even our generations of stupid governments wouldn't put an automatic dry year payment scheme in place. Article says they don't even have to claim - just get a cheque in the mail if rainfall is x below so many inches, no matter if the farm had a better year than (a very sparse set of) data.
Quite a profitable way to farm. “It can be a difference-maker in those really dry years, to get you through,” ... "Land enrolled in the rain insurance grew from 98 million acres in 2018 to 291 million acres last year".
Obviously 'difference-mak[ing]' is not what's going on here, people are establishing and expanding farms to get the dry year payout. Crime is not needed to profit from this.
posted by unearthed at 12:28 PM on September 12 [2 favorites]
I could imagine Australasian farmers doing this BUT even our generations of stupid governments wouldn't put an automatic dry year payment scheme in place. Article says they don't even have to claim - just get a cheque in the mail if rainfall is x below so many inches, no matter if the farm had a better year than (a very sparse set of) data.
Quite a profitable way to farm. “It can be a difference-maker in those really dry years, to get you through,” ... "Land enrolled in the rain insurance grew from 98 million acres in 2018 to 291 million acres last year".
Obviously 'difference-mak[ing]' is not what's going on here, people are establishing and expanding farms to get the dry year payout. Crime is not needed to profit from this.
posted by unearthed at 12:28 PM on September 12 [2 favorites]
I just told people in the Frying Pan post , that I live in Colorado for a reason. I SWEAR TO GOD, THIS WAS NOT THE REASON!
posted by evilDoug at 8:47 PM on September 12 [1 favorite]
posted by evilDoug at 8:47 PM on September 12 [1 favorite]
This is a great story, well told.
QFT: Modern agriculture in America can look like a gambling career with a gardening hobby.
posted by chavenet at 1:16 AM on September 13
QFT: Modern agriculture in America can look like a gambling career with a gardening hobby.
posted by chavenet at 1:16 AM on September 13
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posted by McBearclaw at 11:34 AM on September 12 [16 favorites]