Newscoma

This is tragic. I was talking to my friend, The Engineer and to another buddy who runs a mill about this very thing this past week. The rains have taken a very heavy load this year on America’s southern farmers.

But just as the harvest began in September, it began to rain, and it kept raining through October, normally one of the driest months here. The soybeans shriveled and blackened with mold. The rice keeled over into the mud. The cotton hardened into tight little spitballs. The sweet potatoes rotted underground. When the combines could get into the fields, they scarred them with deep ruts that will make next year’s planting more expensive.

Last year, with commodity prices running at record highs, farming across the nation seemed to be bucking the recession. This year, with the rest of the country in a slow recovery from a man-made disaster, nature forced a crash of its own in the South.

“I was counting my money until September,” Mr. Hart said. “I don’t know whether I’m going to be able to farm another year or not.”

The last sentence of this article is particularly heart breaking. There are Hoots everywhere that have suffered through the rains during this year’s harvest. There is nothing sadder than seeing a useless field with rotting crops.

Nothing.

H/T Beth Downey