Despite President Trump's agriculture bailouts, Iowa farmers continue to see their financial condition erode, a cash crunch that had 44% of producers last year struggling to cover their bills, an Iowa State University report shows.
Increased drought, unsustainable irrigation and changing crop patterns are among the impacts that the agriculture sector will confront as the climate changes, according to a draft federal climate report obtained by The New York Times on Monday.
The weather that led to the below-average conditions could be a preview of future climate conditions, according to a new study from the University of Illinois.
Natural Resources Conservation Service officials predict that drought conditions will persist or intensify for much of the western United States. The predictions come after an unusually dry 2013 in much of the country, including California -- which experienced its driest year on record.
Farmland in Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota and Nebraska are among the nine states in the country that sell 50 percent of the U.S. agriculture products while netting nearly $100 billion in total produce sales, according to U.S. Census data.
When a sunken town emerges from the bottom of a lake, you know you’ve got a problem of Biblical proportions. Monument City’s reappearance symbolizes the drought, the first major drought in the Midwest since 1988, and the worst since the drought of 1956. Things are bad out there.
