NYT: Alarm Growing on Storm's Cost for Agriculture

[DeepModem Mom]

Alarm Growing on Storm's Cost for Agriculture
By ALEXEI BARRIONUEVO and JEFF BAILEY
Published: September 8, 2005


CHICAGO, Sept. 7 - Two weeks from the beginning of harvest season, there is a mounting sense of alarm over a potential financial blow to American farming. Farmers in the breadbasket states rely on barges to carry their corn, soybeans and wheat down the Mississippi River, but cannot be certain that the Port of New Orleans, a crucial link to export markets that was badly damaged by Hurricane Katrina, will reopen anytime soon.

In the gulf states, the storm left farmers reeling from numerous other problems, including a lack of electricity to restore chicken and dairy plants to service, and a shortage of diesel fuel needed for trucks to save dying cattle stranded on the breached levees.

For all of them, it is a race against time.

Farmers in some states in the Midwest had already endured the worst drought in almost 20 years. The storm, moreover, flattened sugar cane and rice fields in the South. And farmers nationwide must pay more for fuel to bring the harvest in and transport crops, lowering the profit they will earn when they sell them. Now Hurricane Katrina is adding to the pain by threatening to curtail exports.

In all, the hurricane will cause an estimated $2 billion in damage to farmers nationwide, according to an early analysis by the American Farm Bureau Federation. The estimate includes $1 billion in direct losses, as well as $500 million in higher fuel and energy prices....


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/08/business/08farm.html?hp&ex=1126152000&en=fbb6648ee037c62a&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[skooooo]

1. What about Trent Lott's house?

[Raster]

2. yeah, that's the first thing I'm concerned about. Oh Jesus, I hope they

can get that porch rebuilt.

[Sub Atomic]

4. yeah, that porch sure was something

you could see all the way across the river to where those people live.

:sarcasm:

[rooboy]

3. I have an answer for the farmers who voted for George Bush.

You should have thought about this and planned for it in advance. The government isn't there to help you - it's up to you to take full responsibility for your own businesses. We can't be holding your hand all the time, you know.

[cliss]

5. I think so.

I've read that farming families are heavily Republican.

I remember talking to somebody a while back about Bush. "Yeah, I'm a Bush supporter", he said. "My whole family is, back in Idaho". In fact, he boasted that his entire community was a Bush Backer.

Maybe this is giving them something to think about......

[murielm99]

6. Thanks a lot. The farmers who are Democrats, like us,

are hurt just as badly.

[MisterP]

7. he said, "who voted for George Bush"

[CHIMO]

8. Maybe They

Will require some labour to go along with things. But I suppose that will be an afterthought.

[neverforget]

9. Check out this link as it talks about why NOLA is so important as a port

and the consequences for the US if it's out of commission.

http://www.stratfor.com/news/archive/050903-geopolitics_katrina.php