Shawn Holladay, a fourth-generation cotton farmer from Dawson County, Texas, looks to agriculture as his sole source of income. It’s not a bad argument for wanting the status quo to continue.

Ask one who’s been in farming for decades for his proverbial ‘staying power’ and he will likely tell you farming is a beloved legacy, he has a passion for growing crops that ensure the well-being of Americans, and throw in a bit of spiel about how crop insurance has made it possible for him to  survive against nature’s odds.

For 25 years, Holladay has used crop insurance to protect his 6,500-acre farmland in Lamesa — devoted to cotton, some grains and peanuts — and ensure its stability in the face of prolonged drought.  Especially vulnerable are farms like his that have been in families for three or four generations.

“My operation could not begin to stand the losses associated with drought and the severe weather without it,” said Holladay, an industry leader and cotton grower who has won the Farm Press/Cotton Foundation High Cotton Award for his conservation and sustainable farming practices. “The current drought would have taken out most, if not all, farms in the area where my operation is located.”

Read Shawn’s story here.