It is early August and the few acres of clover, weeds and
grass that surround my house are once more green and growing. All through the
spring and early summer I have kept a close watch on the water level in the
U.S. Geological Survey, USGS, groundwater monitoring well up the road and read
with anticipation each week Mark Svoboda’s of the National Drought Mitigation Center weekly report. The USGS has been continually monitoring
groundwater levels at a nearby well since 1979 and posting the level daily. It
has been unusually hot and dry and I watched the water level troughs in April
and late June each followed by enough rainfall to bring the water level in the
monitoring well (and I assume my drinking water well) to normal levels and
increase the depth and flow of the creek in the woods at the bottom of my land.
We have managed to avoid drought around here. The Midwest and much of the Great
Plains have not been as lucky.
Most of the Midwest of the county has experienced above-normal
temperatures with July coming in at 5-10 degrees above normal. Five to ten
degrees! The region continues to be impacted not only by oppressive heat, but
also drought. Not enough rain has left desiccated pastures and widespread crop
damages, farmers are culling their livestock and the fire risk is elevated. The
drought persists but some rain has fallen sporadically over the region. In The
Great Plains drought has continued to expand and the temperatures remained 5 to
10 degrees above normal there, too. The
drought continues to advance across more of eastern Nebraska, southeastern
South Dakota, Kansas, Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle, stressing pastures,
crops, livestock/wildlife, and trees. The one cheerful note is southeastern
Texas, which has continued to recover from last year’s drought over the past
several months. Overall, about 60% or more of the lower 48 states are
experiencing some level of drought. Drought is not everywhere, but it is
significant.
The National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) of the U.S.
Department of Agriculture will release the yield and production forecasts for
the 2012 U.S. corn and soybean crops on Friday, August 10th . The U.S. corn crop is the largest in the
world. The USDA has been cutting its
U.S. preliminary corn crop forecasts as the drought has progressed. Last word was that 45% of the corn crop is now estimated to be in poor or very poorcondition. Iowa the biggest corn producing state had 37% of their crops listed
as in fair condition. This drought follows significant flooding last year in
several parts of the county that reduced overall corn crop yields to under 12.5
billion bushels.
Congress has been deadlocked on passing a full farm bill because
they don’t have enough support in the Senate for the five-year farm bill that
came out of the House. Instead with potentially
half the corn crop lost to the drought and
pressure from cattle producers and other livestock producers who are worried
about the cost of buying feed or culling their herds, the U.S. House passed a
$383 million emergency relief package for livestock producers affected by the
drought. The bill would have allowed payments of up to $100,000 per farm, for
cattle and sheep ranchers but not hog and poultry farmers. Row crop farmers
have insurance programs available to them, but the livestock programs expired
in 2011 and this bill was an attempt to fill the gap. The Senate did not pass
the drought measure before their five week recess on Friday and it was tossed
into the pile of unfinished business.
In wet weather and dry weather we are the largest producer
of corn in the world, but we have a problem that nature and Congress created
together, The Renewable Fuel Standard, RFS, creating a regulatory mandated demand
for corn. Last year the RFS mandated ethanol consumed 5.05 billion bushels of
corn. Almost two thirds of the nation is in drought, and according to the most
recent USDA report only 26% of the corn crop is in good or better condition,
there are estimates that more than half of the corn crop is gone and still we
have to meet the RFS. The original
United States Renewable Fuel Standard required that 7.5 billion gallons of
renewable fuel (mostly ethanol made from corn) was to be blended into gasoline
by 2012, but the program was expanded under the Energy Independence and
Security Act (EISA) of 2007, which increased the volume of renewable fuel
required to be blended into gasoline from 9 billion gallons in 2008 to 36
billion gallons by 2022. Last year, approximately 40% of the corn crop was used
for making ethanol.
With half of this year’s corn crop potentially destroyed by
drought added to last year’s flood reduced yield, and lower corn inventories; the
RFS will make the crop situation worse by diverting most of the remaining corn
crop into fuel leading to diminished supplies for livestock and food producers. It is the unrelenting demands of the RFS against
the livestock and food producers. We should not have to choose fuel over food
or more likely have to import corn to feed our nation while we pay to convert
corn into subsidized ethanol.
On Thursday, Bob Goodlatte of Virginia and 155 other member ofcongress sent a letter to Administrator Lisa Jackson of the U.S. EnvironmentalProtection Agency, EPA asking the Administrator to exercise her authority under
the Clean Air Act section 211 (o) 7 to reduce the required volume of renewable
fuel based on harm to the economy. This is a wonderful opportunity to actually
live in harmony with nature and prevent the cost of food from rising even more
and prevent us from taking food from the mouths of poorer nations. Yes, we can
buy more corn if need be. The United States is a rich country and we will eat
meat and the long list of food made from corn products. According to Tyler
Cowen, professor of Economics at George Mason University, in his book, An
Economist Gets Lunch, New Rules for Everyday Foodies, “(To put ethanol into
gasoline) costs a lot more money than does traditional gasoline, once the cost
of the subsidy is included. Sadly, it does not even make the environment a
cleaner place. The energy expended in growing and processing the corn is an environmental
cost too…the nitrogen-based fertilizers used for the corn are major polluters.
Ethanol subsidies are a lose-lose policy on almost every front, except for corn
farmers and some politicians.” “For millions of (people in poor countries) it
is literally a matter of life and death and yet we proceed with ethanol for no
good reason…(Biofuels) has thrown millions of people around the world back into
food poverty.” Is it our goal to be the people of the Capital of Panem and have
tributes from poorer nations play the Hunger Games?
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