The Drought and Supporting Local Farming

These photos were taken by NASA satellites almost exactly one year apart.  The bottom photo shows the Mississippi river in August, 2011 and the top photo shows the same section of river in August, 2012.  The large tan areas visible in the 2012 photo are huge sandbars that are exposed by the drought.  The drought threatens drinking water near the Mississippi River delta as a wedge of saltwater slowly moves up the river against the weakening current, and has also impacted shipping along the river since barges can no longer carry as many goods for fear of running aground. You can read more about this unprecedented situation here.

As we are all becoming increasingly aware, the drought has also had a huge impact on the corn crop in the US.  The USDA has released this map that details the extent of the drought, showing it's spread across much of the corn belt and other highly agricultural states.  However, the vast majority of the corn affected by the drought isn't used for direct human consumption - most of it is ultimately consumed, but in a processed or changed form.  The corn in question is mainly used for conventional animal feed, with some also going to create ethanol and additives for processed foods, like corn syrup.

This infographic shows that the drought won't greatly affect food prices in the grocery store since 86% of retail food costs are from third party fees like packaging, transportation, and processing.  This brings up another issue tangentially related to the drought - the issue of supporting your farmer. An average of around 20 cents of every dollar spent on conventionally produced food goes to the farmer, with slightly higher amounts going to farmers and ranchers raising livestock, and much lower amounts going to farmers who produce grains.  For a six pack of beer that costs $7.19, the farmer who grew the grain to produce it only got paid $.05. 

In a conventional food system, the vast majority of the money you spend on your food supports transportation, packaging, processing, and marketing costs.  It's true that this money employs people in those industries, but a local food system creates many farming jobs near home while reducing fossil fuel consumption and increasing the nutritional value of the food grown.  This would connect people to their communities, making life better overall.  And in drought situations like the one we're in now, a local system made up of smaller more diverse farms growing many crops rather than monocultures would be much less susceptible to drought than the large one-crop farms we have now.

So what can you do?  The number one thing is to support your local farmer!  You can learn about farms, farmers markets, and CSA programs near you on our website.  Check them out, and make an effort to buy a significant portion of your food locally.  If you or someone you know is thinking about becoming a farmer, you can also check out our beginning farmer program which helps connect new farmers or people thinking about becoming farmers with the resources they need to become established. 

As a society, we can take control of our food system and make ourselves less vulnerable to extreme weather while ensuring a better future for our children - a future of better nutrition, a healthier environment, and a greater connectedness to the local community.  A future where farmers are an important part of every community, and receive just compensation for their hard work.  It can be done, one farmer and one consumer at a time.

Have a great Thursday,
Melissa

The Drought Goes On

Yesterday the USDA announced that Illinois farmers are eligible to apply for emergency assistance because of the drought.  The dry conditions intensified in Kansas and Nebraska while relenting slightly in Iowa.  There are even extreme drought conditions in Hawaii forcing ranchers to reduce their herds as they struggle to grow grass to feed cattle.  Hawaii is used to some drought conditions, because of El Nino conditions on the island, however some ranches are complaining of up to eight years of drought conditions.

Agricultural Secretary Tom Vilsack announced on Tuesday that the federal government will help farmers, ranchers, small businesses, and communities by purchasing $170 million of pork, lamb, chicken and catfish for use in food banks.  This is enabled by the Emergency Surplus Removal Program, where the USDA can use funds to assist farmers and ranchers by purchasing meat.

So, the federal government subsidizes corn monocultures, which deplete the soil and reduce its ability to hold water, in order for it to mostly be fed to animals.  Then, when these especially drought-vulnerable plants are killed by a drought (which will become more common with droughts), the government resubsidizes the system by purchasing the meat of animals that became too expensive to feed because of rising feed costs.  Of course, emergency farmer aid is very important, and the drought has become a state of emergency in much of the Midwest.  But how much longer can we support such an unsustainable agricultural system that simply doesn't work in this environment?

By the way, as Grist's headline reads: "Pesticide-resistant insects add insult to drought injury".  Remember this post about scientists' concern about root worms developing a resistance to Bt Corn? It's happening! Here is an excerpt of the article that really confirms how a more balanced agricultural and food system would be more resistant to these environmental (and some unnatural) issues:

www.ent.iastate.edu/imagegal/coleoptera/rw/3936.69wcrw.html

The sad irony is that farmers don’t need to transform themselves into organic farmers to keep their crops from being worm food — though that may be the best approach for developing more drought-tolerant fields. Historically, farmers managed corn rootworms through traditional crop rotations. These rootworms eat corn exclusively, so by alternating a corn crop with soy or another alternative, farmers would deprive the insects of food and the rootworm larvae would die off. This, by the way, is an age-old technique (originally part of the Native American Three Sisters agricultural tradition) that generates profits only for the farmer — not for seed companies.

Just this weekend, at the Summer Conference, I went to a workshop about edible forest gardens and we discussed the Three Sisters method of growing.  Even with the greater distance between corn stalks required for this polyculture, corn and beans grown together are both more productive than when grown individually!

That is the power of sustainable agriculture proved over the course of thousands of years.
Kristiane