Is the United States Headed for a Major Food and Crop Crisis in 2010? (Over 50% of Midwest Counties are Primary Disaster Areas)

I just drove south down Interstate 5 through central California and the appearance is stunning when compared to when I last drove this interstate highway back in 2003. Once fertile green fields have turned into brown patches that appear better suited for Interstate 40 heading due east to Needles. The picture above is one of the MANY protest signs saying "Congress Created Dust Bowl" that I saw posted on these now barren lands. Another sign I repeatedly saw was, "food grows where water flows."

You can read more about the California water dispute in the central farming valleys by clicking The Federal Government Turns Off Water to Fresno and San Joaquin Valley Farmers (No Food for the Masses?). This dispute will likely increase food costs in this country. This country's disaster zones will also affect overall food costs, because it is being reported that over 50% of the counties in the Midwest are considered primary disaster areas. No doubt, this will affect farming the Midwest region which will affect the national food supply. Is the country headed for a food crisis?

All someone needs to do to know the world is headed is for food crisis is to stop reading USDA’s crop reports predicting a record soybean and corn harvests and listen to what else the USDA saying.

Specifically, the USDA has declared half the counties in the Midwest to be primary disaster areas, including 274 counties in the last 30 days alone. These designations are based on the criteria of a minimum of 30 percent loss in the value of at least one crop in the county. The chart below shows counties declared primary disaster areas by the secretary of Agriculture and the president of the United States.

For a list of Secretarial disaster declarations, see here.

For a list of Presidential disaster declarations, see here.

The same USDA that is predicting record harvests is also declaring disaster areas across half the Midwest because of catastrophic crop losses! To eliminate any doubt that this might be an innocent mistake, the USDA is even predicting record soybean harvests in the same states (Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Alabama) where it has declared virtually all counties to have experienced 30 percent production losses. It isn’t rocket scientist to realize something is horribly wrong.

Source: Market Skeptics