A SERIOUS WEATHER STORY – AT 10:16 A.M. ET:  With all the weather stories being reported, and attempts to twist a number of them around to fit the "global-warming narrative," there is actually one major weather story that has received too little attention. 

We have a serious drought situation.  We have had droughts before, so I hope the global warming ministers don't try to drag themselves into this one.  But the drought can have devastating consequences for the economy.  Reader Sam Indorante, a distinguished academic and expert in soils, writes us:  "The drought of 2012 is a story that is way under reported. The impacts will be huge this year and in years to come.  Much of this will be reflected in future food prices in the U.S. and overseas."   He adds:  "It is going to be a tough year for farmers and for consumers.  To think there will never be another Dust Bowl (which happened long before claims of Anthropogenic Global Warming) is naive and shortsighted."  

Today's Washington Post reports on the extent of the disaster: 

A drought gripping the Corn Belt and more than half the United States has reached proportions not seen in more than 50 years, the government reported Monday, jacking up crop prices and threatening to drive up the cost of food.

Though agriculture is a small part of the U.S. economy, the shortfall comes as the nation struggles to regain its economic footing. Last week, the Agriculture Department declared more than 1,000 counties in 26 states as natural-disaster areas.

About 55 percent of the continental United States is now designated as in moderate drought or worse, the largest percentage since December 1956, according to the National Climatic Data Center, and the outlook is grim.

“The drought could get a lot worse before it gets better,” said Joe Glauber, chief economist at the Agriculture Department.

Corn is among the most valuable of U.S. crops, and its price has multiple economic ripple effects, reaching into food and energy markets. Rising corn prices mean higher costs for beef producers that use it to feed their livestock. The increase also means that some fields planted with other crops will be shifted into corn production. And a corn price spike can put upward pressure on the price of ethanol, which consumes more than a third of the U.S. harvest.

Over the past two months, the price of a bushel of corn has risen more than 50 percent to $7.72.

Sam Indorante warns of foolish decisions that can be made in light of this weather emergency.  Noting that the Obama administration is committed to using biofuels, which come from things that are grown, to power military aircraft, ships, and vehicles, Sam writes:  "Do we really want our military to depend on a product that is so dependent on year to year weather conditions?  Also, will there be a future tug of war between crops for biofuels and crops for food?"

COMMENT:  Very good points.  We are dealing with an ideological administration that seems to follow the old leftist mantra:  "We don't care if it fails in practice.  It works in theory." 

The drought is this year's biggest weather story, not the periodic breaking of temperature records that has screamed at us in the headlines.  Temperature records are broken all the time.  The drought is doing long-term damage.

July 17, 2012