From rags to riches. From feast to famine. From pauper to prince. We’ve all heard the phrases to describe going from one extreme condition to the opposite. But farmers in North Carolina understand this concept first hand. Unfortunately.

In 2011, just about every imaginable weather disaster hit the state. It started with frigid cold, moved on to a sweltering heat wave, interspersed with a historic tornado outbreak and then hurricane flooding.

In 2012, started out with much of the state experiencing a severe drought, but thankfully Mother Nature eventually dealt a kinder hand to farmers in the Tar Heel state than most of the rest of the county, who experienced the worst drought since the Dust Bowl.

This unending rollercoaster of weather extremes underscores the reason why year after year, farmers across the country happily purchase crop insurance to help mitigate the unknowns that are never far from hand. In the past, disasters like these would have triggered large disaster relief bills, much like what was passed after…