Historic Midwest Flooding has Devastating Consequences for Farmers
Category: Weather
(EcoWatch) – The record flooding in the Midwest that has now been blamed for four deaths could also have lasting consequences for the region’s many farmers.
Flooding has swamped fields and stockpiles and drowned or harmed livestock in Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota and other states. In Nebraska alone, the loss of crops and livestock is estimated to total nearly $1 billion, Reuters reported Tuesday.
“The economy in agriculture is not very good right now. It will end some of these folks farming, family legacies, family farms,” Iowa farmer Farmer Jeff Jorgenson told The Associated Press. “There will be farmers that will be dealing with so much of a negative they won’t be able to tolerate it.”
One of those farmers might be Anthony Ruzicka of Verdigre, Nebraska. His family has been farming the same plot for five generations, since the 1800s. But the floods have destroyed their farmhouse, littered their alfalfa and corn fields with chunks of ice and killed at least 15 of their cattle.
“There’s not many farms left like this, and it’s probably over for us too, now,” Ruzicka The New York Times. “Financially, how do you recover from something like this?”
Not only crops were lost. The floods have damaged roads, bridges and railways farmers rely on to move their products to processing plants and shipping centers, Reuters reported. Such a major blow to U.S. farmers is likely to have national consequences.
“This will impact the food on your table,” Chair of Nebraska’s Democratic Party Jane Fleming Kleeb tweeted, as The New Food Economy reported.
