Wisconsin Ranked 7th in Crop Loss for 2012

A new website released today from the Natural Resources Defense Council , an environmental advocacy non-profit, outlines the crop damage caused by the 2012 drought. Wisconsin ranked 7th and was joined in the top 10 by Kansas, Kentucky, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota and Texas. 

Photo of Bob Barthel by Sara Stathas

According to the “Your Soil Matters” feature on the site, the Federal Crop Insurance Program paid Milwaukee County farmers $18,652 for crop loss claims in 2012. Wisconsin received $394,041,992 for crop losses last year. Nationwide, the program paid out $17.3 billion. “Unless farmers become more resilient to increasing weather pressures, this already large federal program is primed to spiral out of control,” the site says.

Entering a location pulls up datasheets on the crop losses in various counties. See the charts for Milwaukee, Waukesha, Ozaukee, Washington and Racine counties below. Washington County was hit hardest with $4,156,082 in crop loss claims paid out.

Last February, we took a more personal angle on the historic drought, profiling farmers and how the drought had hit their farms. We also set a photographer up to the Barthel Fruit Farm in Mequon to document the damage in stunning images.

Milwaukee County

Waukesha

Ozaukee

Washington

Racine