Although I agree that a lender should not be making business decisions (technically by law they are not allowed to, it is illegal for them to do so) for a farmer, all do require a certain level of collateral and once an operation reaches a significant level of leverage, often times crop insurance is required to secure the loan. So it kind of depends what level of leverage you are comfortable at. High leverage with good management can create higher ROE than with lower levels as the equity is a lower percentage of the overall managed asset amount and if you are generating a good return on the asset base greater leverage will equal higher return on the equity portion. I think you will find that once the leverage reaches a certain level, few lenders will loan without crop insurance in place, as their risk in a crop failure situation is too great for default. Crop insurance is pretty much a requirement if you are pushing the envelope. But if you are using as you call it "moldy money" and the leverage level was low, a person would probably not have a problem finding another lender willing to loan operating money without crop insurance.

John