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Subscribe to RSSOn Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported half of the nation's counties have been declared disasters because of severe droughts that has affected the West, Midwest and Southeast. NBC's Anne Thompson reports.
Just over half of the counties in the U.S. are now labeled "natural disaster areas" after the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Wednesday added 218 counties in 12 states to the list.
With drought drying up food crops and animal feedstock, the USDA also said it was allowing haying and grazing on 3.8 million protected acres, many of them wetlands, and that insurance companies agreed to a 30-day grace period for farmers on insurance premiums.
"The assistance announced today will help U.S. livestock producers dealing with climbing feed prices, critical shortages of hay and deteriorating pasturelands," Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a statement announcing the moves.
The Nature Conservancy said it was OK with the emergency haying and grazing as long as it is "carried out with minimal impacts to wildlife and habitats."
Across 32 states, ranchers and farmers in 1,584 counties -- 50.3 percent of the total -- are now eligible for low-interest loans. Some 90 percent of those counties were listed due to drought conditions.
That's a new record and one that's been broken repeatedly in recent weeks as more counties have been added. The declarations first started on July 12.
On Monday, the USDA rated as "good-to-excellent" just 24 percent of the corn crop and 29 percent of the soybean crop, both down 2 percentage points from the previous week.
The ratings are the worst since 1988, another year of severe drought in the nation's crop-growing mid-section.
CNBC's Bertha Coombs reports on the worsening condition of crops.
Crop shortages in turn mean higher food prices. The USDA last week raised its estimates of food price inflation, saying prices could rise as much as 3.5 percent this year and up to 4 percent in 2013, led by meat.
And while the latest USDA steps might help ranchers and farmers, those groups on Monday joined forces to ask that the Environmental Protection Agency curb the mandate to produce ethanol from corn, saying it was driving up prices for animal feed.
Related story: Give us an ethanol break, livestock producers say
A state or ethanol refiner must ask for such a waiver, and that hasn't happened, at least not yet.
In a statement to NBC News, the EPA said it was in "close contact with USDA as they and we keep an eye on crop yield estimates, and we will review any data or information submitted by stakeholders, industry and states."
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The study also shed light on droughts throughout the 20th century. Analysis of other major U.S. droughts of the 1900s suggests a cool tropical Pacific was a common factor. Schubert said simulating major events like the 1930s drought provides an excellent test for computer models. While the study finds no indication of a similar Great Plains drought in the near future, it is vital to continue studies relating to climate change. NASA's current and planned suite of satellite sensors is uniquely poised to answer related climate questions.
NASA's Earth Science Enterprise funded the study. The Enterprise is dedicated to understanding the Earth as an integrated system and applying Earth System Science to improve climate, weather, and natural hazard prediction using the unique vantage point of space.
The model showed cooler than normal tropical Pacific Ocean temperatures and warmer than normal tropical Atlantic Ocean temperatures contributed to a weakened low-level jet stream and changed its course. The jet stream, a ribbon of fast moving air near the Earth's surface, normally flows westward over the Gulf of Mexico and then turns northward pulling up moisture and dumping rain onto the Great Plains. As the low level jet stream weakened, it traveled farther south than normal. The Great Plains dried up and dust storms formed. The jet stream normally flows west over the Gulf of Mexico and turns northward pulling up moisture and dumping rain onto the Great Plains. When the jet stream weakened or drastically changes course, traveling farther north or south than normal, it starves the Midwest of precious rain.
The research shed light on how tropical sea surface temperatures can have a remote response and control over weather and climate. It also confirmed droughts can become localized based on soil moisture levels, especially during summer. When rain is scarce and soil dries, there is less evaporation, which leads to even less precipitation, creating a feedback process that reinforces lack of rainfall.
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/topstory/2004/0319dustbowl.html
just normal: We will not stave off the price rises in the supermarket. Living in a small Iowa community surrounded by dehydrated cornfields for miles and miles, I can see what is soon to come.
Will the conglomerates exploit the shortage of grain and elevate prices artificially? Probably.
What this article does not refer to is just how much of the 2011 crop is still being held in storage. Farmers will have to dump that into their feeders and/or onto the market, which should help control prices.
This situation is "fodder" for the administration to take action to control prices for cereals, meat and ethanol. Will they? Likely not. Those conglomurates have Congress in their pockets so Boehner and others will do nothing to control prices, then it will be Obama's fault.
Yes, even a cornfield is a source of political wrangling.
I do not expect the farmers to see any benefit in the rising price of food. It will be the food speculators who will be the winners.
@just normal: The farmers will see an increase the prices per bushel for their crops, but they will also harvest far less grain so, yes, they will not see much benefit. Those who process the grain, meat and ethanol for human consumption will benefit the most. Unfortunately, for us bottom feeders, that's just the way it goes.
Screw it doesnt matter... These TEATARDS love brown air that you can cut with a knife.... AS LONG AS IT MAKES MONEY!!! They Love water the color of Orange Kool Aid that you can light on fire... AS LONG AS IT MAKES MONEY!!! They absolutly have no use for a F'n Tree.... ITS IN THE WAY OF MAKING MONEY!!! Critters??? "F" A CRITTER!!! THEY DONT MAKE ME ANY MONEY!!!!
Why would a Science Hating, Anti-Intellectual, Neanderthal from HillBilly Hollar, Jerk Water Junction, Teatard County ANY FLY OVER RED STATE USA care about melting polar caps???? IT DONT MAKE THEM ANY MONEY!!!
You Teatards are a VIRUS!!! Willing to kill the ONLY PLACE WE HAVE TO LIVE FOR A BUCK!!!! Lets watch and see how many Red State Republicans have their hand out looking for GOVERMENT FUNDING to combat the effects of what they CLEARLY DONT BELIEVE IN!!!
IM GONNA PLAY THE DEVILS ADVOCATE AND TAKE A SIP OF TEATARD/REPUK KOOL AID.... I say we dont give them a "F'N DIME" and let the FREE MARKET Decide what to do with them.... Let the Farms FAIL!!! YOUR ON YOUR OWN!!! Survival of the Fittest is all you Teatards talk about... IF YOU CANT GET THROUGH THIS ON YOUR OWN YOU ARE NOT FIT TO FARM!!!! Corporate and GOVERMENT FARMS are the Wave of the Future.... Row after Row after Row of Goverment farms.....
Didn't anyone see the article on the finacial analysts in the UK who crunched the climate change numbers the scientists had come up with? Article about it in Rolling Stone this month. It is not political, which is good because people are getting sucked into believing what they want to believe courtesy of some bad media.It is of great interest that one thing is conclusive arithmetically and that is the weather is not normal and it is ramping up faster than scientists had predicted. The insurance companies are following this -they know. The scientists that are employedby Exxon and the rest know what climate scientists are saying... The preschoolers today are going to be living in what the author said was a climate out of a sci- fi movie. We knew this was coming, we who respect science anyway, and we have to get off oil like yesterday. We need 100 yrs to fix this problem and we have less than 20 left. The fossil fuel industries and their paid minion deniers have trashed this planet's atmosphere with their license to freely pollute, like no other industry in the country. We knew about this in the 70's....so we wasted time, listening to the crap by the paid deniers. Watch the skies, folks--it is going to get worse. The scientists have neglected to fully illustrate the horrors we will be facing since they mainly try to just get heard, according to the article. Think of how shunned the deniers will be by their own descendents--they will be on a par with idiot holocaust deniers of WWII. I think they will deserve whatever willfull ignorance brings them.....
Wow. Don't jump. It will be alright.
If we stop turning our food into expensive and impractical subsidized fuel we will be much better off. The net net on energy after running the tractors and cooking the mash is less than zero and it costs much more. Making food into gasloine is a bad idea. Now that the supply is getting tight the dynamics will kick in and it will be painfullly clear that corn is better eaten than burned in an engine.
Making food into
gasloinecrappy "fuel" is a bad idea.Perhaps America is being punished for criminalization of the poor? Fines are also criminalization. Whether or not you think so. Fines also cause increased debt, and debt is the new slavery.