The Energy Mix

Top Menu

  • About
  • Latest Digest/Archive
  • Partners
  • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Contact

Main Menu

  • News Archive by Category
    • Climate & Society
      • Carbon Levels & Measurement
      • Carbon-Free Transition
      • Climate Action/”Blockadia”
      • Climate Denial & Greenwashing
      • Climate Policy/Meetings/Negotiations
      • Culture, Curiosities, & Humour
      • Demographics
      • Energy Politics
      • Energy Subsidies
      • Energy/Carbon Pricing & Economics
      • Finance & Investment
      • First Peoples
      • Insurance & Liability
      • International Agencies & Studies
      • Jobs & Training
      • Legal & Regulatory
      • Media, Messaging, & Public Opinion
      • Methane
      • Travel, Leisure & Recreation
    • Climate Impacts & Adaptation
      • Biodiversity & Habitat
      • Drought, Famine & Wildfires
      • Food Security
      • Forests & Deforestation
      • Health & Safety
      • Heat & Temperature
      • Human Rights & Migration
      • Ice Loss & Sea Level Rise
      • International Security & War
      • Severe Storms & Flooding
      • Soil & Natural Sequestration
      • Water
    • Demand & Distribution
      • Air & Marine
      • Auto & Alternative Vehicles
      • Batteries/Storage
      • Buildings
      • Cities
      • Electricity Grid
      • Energy Access & Equity
      • Off-Grid
      • Petrochemicals & Plastics
      • Supply Chains & Consumption
      • Transit
      • Walking & Biking
    • Jurisdictions
      • Africa
      • Arctic & Antarctica
      • Asia
      • Australia
      • Brazil
      • Canada
      • China
      • Europe
      • India
      • International
      • Mexico, Caribbean & Latin America
      • Middle East
      • Oceans
      • Small Island States
      • South & Central America
      • Sub-National Governments
      • United States
    • Non-Renewable Energy
      • CCS & Negative Emissions
      • Coal
      • Nuclear
      • Oil & Gas
      • Pipelines/Rail Transport
      • Shale & Fracking
      • Tar Sands/Oil Sands
    • Opinion & Analysis
    • Renewable Energy
      • Bioenergy
      • Demand & Efficiency
      • General Renewables
      • Geothermal
      • Hydrogen
      • Hydropower
      • Research & Development
      • Solar
      • Wave & Tidal
      • Wind
  • Special Reports
    • Alberta’s Bitumen Pipe Dream
    • Canada’s Drive to Net Zero
    • Carbon Farming
    • City and Sub-National Action
    • Drawdown
    • Drive to 1.5
    • 26-Week Climate Transition Program for Canada
    • America’s Electoral Climate 2020
    • Canada’s Climate Change Election 2019
    • The Energy Mix Yearbook 2018
      • Climate Extremes
      • Fossils Go For Broke
      • Renewables (R)Evolution
      • Electric Vehicles
      • Canada’s Contradiction
      • COP24
      • Pipeline Politics
      • Jobs and Just Transition
      • Cities and Sub-Nationals
      • Finance and Divestment
      • Climate Litigation
  • Webinars & Podcasts
  • About
  • Latest Digest/Archive
  • Partners
  • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Contact
  • Subscribe
  • Donate

logo

  • News Archive by Category
    • Climate & Society
      • Carbon Levels & Measurement
      • Carbon-Free Transition
      • Climate Action/”Blockadia”
      • Climate Denial & Greenwashing
      • Climate Policy/Meetings/Negotiations
      • Culture, Curiosities, & Humour
      • Demographics
      • Energy Politics
      • Energy Subsidies
      • Energy/Carbon Pricing & Economics
      • Finance & Investment
      • First Peoples
      • Insurance & Liability
      • International Agencies & Studies
      • Jobs & Training
      • Legal & Regulatory
      • Media, Messaging, & Public Opinion
      • Methane
      • Travel, Leisure & Recreation
    • Climate Impacts & Adaptation
      • Biodiversity & Habitat
      • Drought, Famine & Wildfires
      • Food Security
      • Forests & Deforestation
      • Health & Safety
      • Heat & Temperature
      • Human Rights & Migration
      • Ice Loss & Sea Level Rise
      • International Security & War
      • Severe Storms & Flooding
      • Soil & Natural Sequestration
      • Water
    • Demand & Distribution
      • Air & Marine
      • Auto & Alternative Vehicles
      • Batteries/Storage
      • Buildings
      • Cities
      • Electricity Grid
      • Energy Access & Equity
      • Off-Grid
      • Petrochemicals & Plastics
      • Supply Chains & Consumption
      • Transit
      • Walking & Biking
    • Jurisdictions
      • Africa
      • Arctic & Antarctica
      • Asia
      • Australia
      • Brazil
      • Canada
      • China
      • Europe
      • India
      • International
      • Mexico, Caribbean & Latin America
      • Middle East
      • Oceans
      • Small Island States
      • South & Central America
      • Sub-National Governments
      • United States
    • Non-Renewable Energy
      • CCS & Negative Emissions
      • Coal
      • Nuclear
      • Oil & Gas
      • Pipelines/Rail Transport
      • Shale & Fracking
      • Tar Sands/Oil Sands
    • Opinion & Analysis
    • Renewable Energy
      • Bioenergy
      • Demand & Efficiency
      • General Renewables
      • Geothermal
      • Hydrogen
      • Hydropower
      • Research & Development
      • Solar
      • Wave & Tidal
      • Wind
  • Special Reports
    • Alberta’s Bitumen Pipe Dream
    • Canada’s Drive to Net Zero
    • Carbon Farming
    • City and Sub-National Action
    • Drawdown
    • Drive to 1.5
    • 26-Week Climate Transition Program for Canada
    • America’s Electoral Climate 2020
    • Canada’s Climate Change Election 2019
    • The Energy Mix Yearbook 2018
      • Climate Extremes
      • Fossils Go For Broke
      • Renewables (R)Evolution
      • Electric Vehicles
      • Canada’s Contradiction
      • COP24
      • Pipeline Politics
      • Jobs and Just Transition
      • Cities and Sub-Nationals
      • Finance and Divestment
      • Climate Litigation
  • Webinars & Podcasts
Advanced Search
Food SecuritySevere Storms & FloodingSub-National GovernmentsUnited States
Home›Climate Impacts & Adaptation›Food Security›U.S. Farmers Fall Far Behind on Planting After Record Midwestern Floods

U.S. Farmers Fall Far Behind on Planting After Record Midwestern Floods

June 11, 2019
June 11, 2019
 
45
0
Share:
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  Print This Story
John Shea/Wikimedia Commons

After suffering through the wettest year on record, and with rain continuing to bucket out of June skies, American corn farmers are desperately behind on planting, with little relief in sight and their distress compounded by Donald Trump’s trade war with China and Congressional Republicans’ reluctance to provide flood relief.

“Through all of April and all of May, wave after wave of rain hit the nation right in the breadbasket, with April capping the wettest 12 months on record for the continental United States,” the Washington Post reports. “The past 60 days, in particular, have coincided with planting season in much of the country.”

Like this story? Subscribe to The Energy Mix and never miss an edition of our free e-digest.

SUBSCRIBE

With yet more rain in the forecast, time is running out, especially for farmers in Illinois and Indiana who have planted only 45% and 31% of their corn, respectively. Even producers in slightly less waterlogged states like Iowa have not yet planted more than 70% of their corn.”

“The coming week’s weather will make or break this year’s crop,” the Post writes.

The problem is worse than it appears, University of Wyoming agronomist Andrew Kniss said in an interview, explaining that planting itself is no guarantee of healthy germination rates. Seeds will struggle in such wet soil, he explained, and the plants that do emerge will likely be stunted.

Whereas in recent years, roughly 84% of corn plants would have emerged by this point, the Post said germination stood at 46% overall as of June 4, with Illinois and Indiana at 32% and 18% respectively.

And while farmers could make a last-minute switch to soybeans, which generally survive flooding better than corn, the Post says that would make them “even more exposed to Trump’s trade war with China, the world’s largest soybean market.”

A far more likely option, Illinois corn farmer Sherman Newlin told the paper, is crop insurance. “They’re just going to say ‘I’m done,’” he said of neighbours whose farms, like his, remain under standing water. “‘I’ll just take my insurance and live to fight another day.’”

But not everyone has that option. While some 85% of Illinois corn farmers are covered by insurance, “the remaining 15% includes many small, family farms that are left with little protection against this unprecedented weather,” the Post states. But “for many farmers, the clock has run out on corn for 2019.”

That situation will send shock waves beyond the sodden fields of the Midwest, as “alarmed traders will probably bid up prices on corn and soybeans, making costs soar for ethanol producers, hog farmers, and others who are already caught in Trump’s escalating two-front trade war.”National Public Radio reports that monetary relief is on the way, in the form of US$3 billion in flood relief for Midwestern farmers, part of a $19.1-billion disaster aid package whose beneficiaries will also include hurricane-battered Puerto Rico and wildfire ravaged California. The aid package had been stalled in the House of Representatives by three Republicans insisting the bill “should include spending cuts to offset the price tag as well as funding for Trump’s border wall,” Grist noted. But the bill passed last week and was due for Trump’s signature.

TagsCarbon Farming - Land Use Natural Climate Solutions
Share:
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  Print This Story

Find more stories about
Food SecuritySevere Storms & FloodingSub-National GovernmentsUnited States

    Leave a reply Cancel reply

    Recent Posts

    • Climate Deniers Cheer Trump’s Murderous Mob as Campaigners Decry Preferential Treatment
      Climate Deniers Cheer Trump’s Murderous Mob as Campaigners Decry Preferential Treatment
      January 11, 2021
    • UK Accused of ‘Rank Hypocrisy’ After Allowing New Underground Coal Mine
      UK Accused of ‘Rank Hypocrisy’ After Allowing New Underground Coal Mine
      January 11, 2021
    • Parade of Alberta Coal Developments Threatens Recreation Areas, Biodiversity
      Parade of Alberta Coal Developments Threatens Recreation Areas, Biodiversity
      January 11, 2021
    • 2020 Ties 2016 for Hottest Year on Record
      2020 Ties 2016 for Hottest Year on Record
      January 10, 2021
    • Forest Carbon Offsets on the Agenda as France’s One Planet Summit Confronts Biodiversity Loss
      Forest Carbon Offsets on the Agenda as France’s One Planet Summit Confronts Biodiversity Loss
      January 10, 2021

    News Feed

    Top News

    • Climate-Related Hunger, Drought, Conflict to Cost Kenya $62 Billion
      January 10, 2021
    • Canada Pushes Back on ‘Unwarranted’ U.S. Solar Tariffs
      January 10, 2021

    Read More

    Carbon-Free Transition

    • Renewables Output Exceeds Fossil for First Time in Germany
      January 10, 2021
    • UK Citizens’ Assembly Prompts Participants to Change their Lives
      January 10, 2021

    Read More

    Canada

    • Canada Pushes Back on ‘Unwarranted’ U.S. Solar Tariffs
      January 10, 2021
    • Lion Electric Offers Amazon a 15.8% Share
      January 10, 2021

    Read More

    U.S.

    • North Dakota Fossils Demand Relief on Royalty Payments
      January 10, 2021
    • Systemic Racism Limits Minority Businesses’ Access to Energy Efficiency Dollars
      January 10, 2021

    Read More

    International

    • India Earmarks $60B for New Gas Infrastructure
      January 10, 2021
    • Storm Drives UK Wind Above 50% of Power Supply on Boxing Day
      January 10, 2021

    Read More

    • About the Energy Mix
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy and Copyright
    Copyright 2020 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.