Outstanding in his field: Gene Gantz has been honored for spending more than four decades promoting crop insurance.

You can take the man off the farm, but you can't get the farm out of the man. For more than 42 years, Gene Gantz has worked in the crop insurance industry, visiting more farms than he can count in 49 states to educate farmers on risk management techniques. He's worked for the government, for insurance companies, and for a trade group--but has always stayed close to his farm roots.

Gantz, the man known as "Mr. Crop Insurance," was recently honored by the Pennsylvania Agriculture Department for spending more than 42 years working in the crop insurance industry.

"Thanks to him, Pennsylvania boasts a nation-leading crop insurance program," Dennis Wolf, Pennsylvania agriculture secretary, said when he presented the "Insuring Pennsylvania's Future Award" to Gantz.

A man more comfortable talking about farming than awards, Gantz loves what he does."I enjoy interacting with agricultural people," Gantz said."Whether it be farmers, the extension service, the academics--I'm very comfortable with them. They are very good people."

Gantz "had the privilege and honor" of being raised on a farm in Meadville, Pa., and ran his own dairy and crop farm in the 1960s. He saw first-hand the damage that drought can cause to farmers who count on harvesting crops to feed their families.

Gantz is currently a risk management specialist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture Risk Management Agency, based at the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, in Harrisburg, Pa., but travels the state telling anyone who will listen why crop insurance is important.

In Pennsylvania alone, there have been three severe droughts in the past five years. Farmers in the Keystone State paid $ 31 million in premium last year, and collected $131 million in payments."That didn't cover all of their losses, but rural Pennsylvania would be under much more economic stress if they didn't have insurance," Gantz said.

Gantz says he's still motivated because only 47% of the state's eligible acres are insured. "If everyone had been insured, that would have been another $100 million to be paid," Gantz said.

Gantz began his crop insurance career by working as a part-time adjuster in 1964. He went on to become the first president of the American Association of Crop Insurers in Washington, D.C.; senior vice president for Rain and Hail Services Inc. in Iowa; and president of Ag Risk Strategies in Millersburg, Pa.

Crop insurance is a great product, Gantz said. "In commercial terms, it's business interruption insurance on agricultural production. If bad things happen--natural disasters, disease--and they suffer a loss, then they are paid depending on the amount of coverage they selected. Like any other insurance, the better coverage they buy, the better they are taken care of and the more premium they pay," he said.

The USDA administers the program and develops rates and rules. Private insurers carry the first layer of risk, and sell the policies through independent agents. Private companies and reinsurers pay the losses from routine claims, with the government taking the catastrophic risk.

Pennsylvania is very active in encouraging farmers to use crop insurance, and started to pay part of the premium for farmers in 2000.

"One of the real joys in my career is to see the [Pennsylvania] secretary of agriculture encourage farmers to manage their risks," Gantz said. "There will be bad days. There will be droughts. Crop insurance is the only way you can protect yourself. It's the best private/public partnership there is."

FARM FUN: Gene Gantz shows off one of the vintage Ford tractors collects and restores. After 42 years, Gantz still loves talking about the importance of farming and crop insurance.