U.S. drought: Half of all counties disaster areas

Dead corn stalks lay in the fields in northern Vigo County Thursday July 5, 2012. The current drought has scorched thousands of acres of cropland in Indiana. / AP Photo/Tribune-Star, Jim Avelis

(AP) ST. LOUIS - Nearly 220 counties in a dozen drought-stricken states were added Wednesday to the U.S. government's list of natural disaster areas as the nation's agriculture chief unveiled new help for frustrated, cash-strapped farmers and ranchers grappling with extreme dryness and heat.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's addition of the 218 counties means that more than half of all U.S. counties - 1,584 in 32 states - have been designated primary disaster areas this growing season, the vast majority of them mired in a drought that's considered the worst in decades.

Counties in Arkansas, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee and Wyoming were included in Wednesday's announcement. The USDA uses the weekly U.S. Drought Monitor to help decide which counties to deem disaster areas, which makes farmers and ranchers eligible for federal aid, including low-interest emergency loans.

To help ease the burden on America's farms, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Thursday opened up 3.8 million acres of conservation land for ranchers to use for haying and grazing. Under that conservation program, farmers have been paid to take land out of production to ward against erosion and create wildlife habitat.

Drought decimates Arkansas' famed cattle industry
Texas farmers using smartphones to manage drought
Amid drought, wine grapes save a cotton farmer
Livestock farmers hurt by soaring grain prices

"The assistance announced today will help U.S. livestock producers dealing with climbing feed prices, critical shortages of hay and deteriorating pasturelands," Vilsack said.

Vilsack also said crop insurers have agreed to provide farmers facing cash-flow issues a penalty-free, 30-day grace period on premiums in 2012.

As of this week, nearly half of the U.S. corn crop was rated poor to very poor, according to the USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service. About 37 percent of the U.S. soybeans were lumped into that category, while nearly three-quarters of U.S. cattle acreage is in drought-affected areas, the survey showed.

The potential financial fallout in the nation's midsection appears to be intensifying. The latest weekly Mid-America Business Conditions Index, released Wednesday, showed that the ongoing drought and global economic turmoil is hurting business in nine Midwest and Plains states, boosting worries about the prospect of another recession, according to the report.

Creighton University economist Ernie Goss, who oversees the index, said the drought will hurt farm income while the strengthening dollar hinders exports, meaning two of the most important positive factors in the region's economy are being undermined.

17 Photos

Massive drought strikes U.S.

[wild_krrd]

@WordsLive

You're really goong to bring God into this catastrophe? THis is part climate change, and part weather patterns. I don't see the Hand of God in any of this and I think to try to say this is the result of somehting related to Him is ridiculous.

[TimeToEvolve]

This is the kind of thing it takes to impeach Exxon and Chevron. They have been owning and running the government for far too long. And now we are seeing the disastrous effects of man made global climate change they caused. Now we should start billing them for the damages.

[lloydbest1]

According to the latest figures released Thursday morning (8/2), Close to 80 percent of the country is abnormally dry; 55+ percent is in moderate drought or worse. Missouri has something like 93% of its territory under "extreme" or "exceptional" drought. There hasn't been anything like this since 1936 and even that drought wasn't measurebly worse.

Virtually all of the long term climate projections I have looked at indicate the drought will do no better than hold ground and some predict it will spread and intensify. The blocking pattern now set up could persist well into 2013. This is a long way from being over and if the more pessimistic of the long term GCM's (Global Climatic Models) are accurate, wind and ocean circulation patterns dominating weather far from the scene could tip the balance in favor of drought conditions here for another decade or longer. Our heartland will be clinging to the ragged edge for a LONG time to come.

We can overcome one bad year, even two consecutively but if the dire outlook I've presented above turns out to be the reality we will be hurt bad. Even today, and even during uncertain years, America pretty much feeds the world. We can no longer do it entirely by ourselves, but even with the burgeoning billions we have now that we didn't in the mid-sixties, we wouldn't normally need much help.

Another year or two of this, though, and we will barely (or even not quite) be able to feed ourselves. This bodes ill for food insecure people all over the globe and massive hunger, even famine is not out of the question.

This is no joke and what we do going forward with regard to mitigation - and I'm not sure how much we are even able to mitigate - will have a tremendous effect on the lives of uncountable numbers of people here and away and, if we don't get right what we can control, will end them for many.

[Raptorsmasher]

I afraid you are correct. For nearly 30 years climate scientists warned that climate change would likely happen if we didn't alter the amount of CO2 we pumped into the air. Industry has done everything in its power push back on most scientific findings. I am afraid we are now entering a tipping point.

[ThomasSense]

The present CO2 will be around for a 1000 years. Why do we still live in denial that adding more won't make things worse? Why don't the people demand government incentive programs to make a change? Why is it alright to spend money on rebuilding after disasters, or paying crop insurance money; but there is an uproar when the government wants to spend money for a smart electric grid or change auto or coal emission standards?

[ladyang]

Well, according to the gop and their minions, it's NOT a drought, it Summer!

[esnation]

Dear WordsLive,
There you go again...beatin on yer bible...sayin less in more words then a turkey on thanksgiven...I was joshin ya, I DO BELEIVE IN GHOST, I DO BELEIVE IN GHOST, but I don't think I beleive you exist, your just an ole bag of hot air....

[ThomasSense]

Have we decided if this weather that we are experiencing is something that we can not continue to live with year after year? Have we decided that this weather is evidence of a changing climate?

Germany gets 50% of its electricity from solar panels. India just suffered a nationwide blackout because of an inefficient power grid. We need to stimulate our economy.

So, everyone wins if move toward renewable energy. We stop the acceleration of climate change by increasing our renewable energy capacity, we build a "smart" power grid, we employ people with deficit spending, and we get the economy moving.

[esnation]

Dear WordsLive,
Whoa, back-up, sorry (for you) I don't beleive in fairy tales anymore. Your god is the god of the almighty dollar, that's what he exist for, as do you. There IS class warfare, and the elite ARE winning, while you furtively beat on your bible. Having said that, don't let me hold you up, I know you have to go sack Jerusalem or somewhere, so I'll let you on your way...Buh-BYE

[daffy64]

Isn't global warming great? It's giving Canada the US' climate and the US Mexico's.

[gadfly65]

Damaging more land by overgrazing doesn't protect our food supply in the long run; we need to move away from such heavy meat consumption and use agricultural land to feed people directly instead of making inefficient livestock the middlemen.

[lloydbest1]

Not long ago, in terms of geologic time - a mere 8000 years ago, the Sahara Desert was a vast grassland with spots here and there that were wet enough to support open woodland.

Much like the east-central parts of Oklahoma down to the Dallas/Ft.Worth metroplex is today.

Winters were generally warmer and summers about the same. Rainfall amounts were in the 12 to 15 inch range annually for the drier parts and as much as 25 inches per year in the wetter areas. It was a much more inviting, productive and human friendly land back then.

That all started going away long before the Egyptians started their empire building in the Nile Valley. But even during the First Dynasty conditions were wetter and cooler than today.

The change was dramatic and though it didn't occur in an eyeblink, was still rapid and disruptive enough.

There's no guarantee we aren't now seeing the begining stages of a similar change in America's Breadbasket.

[louiville2_2]

Yeah and at one time Antarctica wasn't covered in ice.

"Palm Trees Grew in Antarctica 53 Million Years Ago"

As far as the Sahara desert goes it's currently getting smaller.

Here in the 1930's droughts were bigger much bigger...


Bottom line change happens