Farming & Agriculture
Our team specializes in uncovering historical General Liability insurance policies to address contamination from historical farming and agriculture practices.
Farming & Agriculture and the Need for Insurance Archaeology Services
The agricultural sector has been the backbone of numerous economies, playing a vital role in feeding nations for centuries. However, it has not done so without its environmental impacts. For decades, farms and agricultural businesses have utilized various productivity-boosting practices that have inadvertently led to environmental contamination.
One significant example has been the soil and groundwater contamination caused by the extensive use of pesticides and herbicides. These chemicals accumulate over time, depositing residues and, in some cases, heavy metals in soils adjacent waterways. Some pesticides and soil fumigants used in past decades are now understood to contain per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), adding an emerging category of concern to farm sites already dealing with legacy chemical use.
Many farms and agricultural businesses also operate fueling stations and maintain a fleet of vehicles and equipment. The long-term operation of these facilities may also contribute to environmental degradation and contamination. Livestock operations can introduce further risk through waste storage and lagoon management, particularly where waste has migrated into nearby soil or surface water.
“These operations have historically purchased General Liability insurance policies that are still available today to tender claims against.”
However, there’s a silver lining for current owners of agricultural properties. Similar to auto body shops and dry cleaners, these operations have historically purchased General Liability insurance policies that are still available today to tender claims against. When utilized properly, they can provide the crucial financial resources required for funding the cleanup of pollution and contamination.
How Restorical Research Can Help
Our team of professional insurance archaeologists specializes in uncovering and utilizing historical General Liability insurance policies to address farming and agriculture contamination. Here’s how we can help:
Find Your Policy1.
We investigate your property’s history to uncover any General Liability insurance policies that you may not be aware of.
2.
Our team evaluates the extent of contamination caused by practices such as pesticide use and runoff, as well as the operation of fueling stations and fleet vehicles.
3.
We analyze the uncovered policies to determine the coverage and applicability to current environmental issues.
4.
Utilizing these historical insurance contracts, we facilitate the funding for cleaning up pollution and contamination on your property.
5.
From start to finish, Restorical Research provides guidance and expertise, ensuring that the process is seamless and beneficial for your agricultural business.
Key Services We Offer for Farming & Agriculture Operations
The services below are the specific tools Restorical Research applies to farm and agricultural property contamination.
Finding Lost Insurance Policies
Farms often change hands across generations, with ownership, tenancy, and insurance carriers shifting multiple times over decades. We track down historical policies using carrier history, prior ownership records, and our proprietary database.
Insurance Policy Reconstruction
When original policy documents can’t be located, we reconstruct coverage terms from secondary evidence such as underwriting files and industry filings.
Trigger Analysis
Contamination from pesticide, fertilizer, and fuel use typically develops gradually. We determine which policy years may be triggered by this progressive contamination.
Insurance Allocation Analysis
Farms with a long operating history or multiple past owners may have coverage spread across several carriers and policy years. We help allocate responsibility so recovery efforts target the coverage most likely to respond.
PFAS Cleanup
Biosolids placement over decades and legacy pesticide or fumigant use is linked to PFAS contamination. We help identify historical coverage that may respond to these emerging claims.
Mitigate Environmental Cleanup Costs
Soil and groundwater remediation on agricultural land carries substantial costs. We work to direct recovered insurance funds toward these cleanup requirements, easing the financial burden on the property owner or operator.
Case Studies
Insurance Archeology for Farming and Agriculture
General liability policies in effect during a farm’s operating years may still respond to contamination claims, even after a sale or change in operation. Whether a specific policy applies depends on its language and how the applicable state treats occurrence-based coverage triggers.
Responsibility for asserting historical coverage generally falls to the policyholder. Restorical Research leads this process on behalf of farm and agricultural property owners.
Recovering pre-tender costs is limited to a handful of states and historical coverage can be pursued even after cleanup has started. For the majority of states, the claim must be tendered prior to remediation. The earlier identification of a policy generally gives a farm owner more flexibility in how remediation is planned and funded.
Restorical Research typically starts with very basic details about the property and ownership history, reviewing environmental reports and interviewing the client over the 20 minute intake call. Our team can take it from there. We typically need our clients for about one hour per month to participate in scheduled calls where we update the team on progress and talk through our research up to that point.
Not every search turns up a usable policy. In cases where no coverage can be confirmed, Restorical Research can advise on other potential avenues, such as coverage carried by a prior operator or landowner, before a farm owner has to fund cleanup entirely out of pocket.
