Drought devastates U.S. crops
Two thirds of the continental United States is now suffering from the most widespread drought since the 1950s.
By Fritz Faerber
MNN.com
Wed, Aug 01 2012
The sweat pours down Larry Hasheider’s face as he walks across his parched cornfields to show the result of one of the worst droughts to strike the United States in decades.
“This is the best ear I’ve got out here, right now. And, that’s about half the normal size. The plants that are next to it produced nothing,” the Illinois farmer said as he pulled the husk away to show the only spot of yellow in a field of dried-out corn stalks.
“What I’m seeing here is a total crop failure. There is no grain out here to harvest.”
Two thirds of the continental United States is now suffering from the most widespread drought since the 1950s.
And the drought in America’s breadbasket is intensifying at an unprecedented rate, driving concern food prices could soar if crops in the world’s key producer are decimated.
The latest U.S. Drought Monitor reported a nearly threefold increase in areas of extreme drought in the course of a single week in the nine Midwestern states where three quarters of the country’s corn and soybean crops are produced.
“It’s kind of like being sucker-punched in the stomach,” Hasheider told AFP. “You think, ‘OK, it’s bad this week, but next week it can’t be this way. Well, it is.”
The Rest…HERE
