WWF Climate Blog
Federal farm disaster aid has been granted for districts in Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi
Published by Lynn Englum on Thu, 12/03/2009 - 19:45
As the U.S. House Committee on Agriculture commenced hearings on the economic impacts to farmers from climate legislation and climate change affects, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) this week designated 53 parishes in Louisiana as primary natural disaster areas "because of losses caused by the combined effects of spring and summer drought followed by excessive rainfall that occurred during the period of April 1, through October 30, 2009" (see USDA Designates 53 Parishes in Louisiana as Primary Natural Disaster Areas, 30 November 2009). Also, USDA for the same reason said farmers in the adjacent states of Arkansas, Mississippi and Texas also qualified natural disaster assistance.
October was the wettest on record for Arkansas and Louisiana, the second wettest on record for Mississippi and the seventh wettest for Texas. See our posting, U.S. Sees Wettest October on Record; Arkansas Records are Washed Away (9 November 2009); and Farmers to get aid (Daily World, 3 December 2009).
As farmers in this region feel the impacts of extreme weather, Congress is debating the economic impacts of the House-passed climate bill (H.R. 2454) on the farm sector. As we discussed in U.S. Department of Agriculture: Climate Legislation Likely Will Have Positive Effect on Farm Incomes (3 December 2009), the consequences of climate impacts on agriculture are absent from economic analyses of climate and energy legislation. Without factoring in the economic implications of climate change impacts and adaptation in the agricultural sector, understanding the full cost or cost savings of a climate and energy bill is impossible.
Learn how else this region will be impacted by climate change.
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