Unprecedented
crop failures
across the
United States.
Local news outlets
do report this.
National TV networks and
newspapers, out of New
York, and Washington DC,
don't care about
"fly over country"
The rain and flooding
in early 2019 delayed
crop planting.
Now snow and cold
temperatures are
ruining harvest
season.
Even without
a cold October
and November,
this was already
going to be
the worst year
for many
U.S. farmers.
Some examples:
North Dakota:
Agriculture Secretary
Sonny Perdue approved
North Dakota’s request
on November 8,
for a Secretarial disaster
designation for 47 counties
related to late season rainfall,
and an October snowstorm.
Northwest Minnesota:
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz
asked the U.S. agriculture
secretary to declare
a disaster for 12 counties
in northwest Minnesota,
where farmers
are struggling
through a
very difficult
harvest season.
Iowa:
A growing
season report
for the week
ending Nov. 3,
said Iowa’s
average temperature
was 33 degrees F.,
12.6 degrees
below normal.
Ohio:
For 14 counties in Ohio,
the United States
Department of Agriculture
said they are primary
natural disaster areas,
meaning farmers
in those counties
can apply for
disaster loans
if they suffered
a 30% loss in
crop production.
Minnesota's
Red River Valley,
Near Grand Forks:
successive nights
of subfreezing
temperatures,
from late October
into early November,
caused an estimated
$45 million in damage
to 9,000 acres of red
and yellow potato crops
in the Red River Valley.
Illinois:
Appealing the U.S.
federal government
withholding assistance
from 1.4 million
Illinois residents
affected by
spring flooding,
which the
Illinois Emergency
Management Agency
determined was the
state’s worst flooding
in more than 25 years.
The U.S. Department
of Agriculture had declared
an agriculture disaster
in the state in August.
Kentucky:
On October 16,
The federal government approved
Kentucky’s request for a disaster
declaration for counties affected
by this summer’s drought.
South Carolina:
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture
Sonny Perdue designated
six counties in South Carolina
as natural disaster areas
due to drought -- Bamberg,
Calhoun, Kershaw, Lexington,
Orangeburg and Richland.
Crookston, Minnesota:
Sugar beet and potato farmers,
whose crops have been hard hit
by excessive moisture
this harvest, have had
unprecedented crop losses.
Idaho:
In eastern Idaho’s potato
community, the 2019 harvest
revealed large losses from
October’s disastrous freeze
-- leaving behind many tons
of unusable tubers.
We don’t yet know
the full extent
of this crisis,
because cold air
in November
is going to cause
more crop failures.
We can only grow food
if the weather cooperates.