Massive crop losses for farmers and missing an entire growing season

The lower Mississippi Valley contains some of the most productive farmland in the world. It is the breadbasket of America, producing food and fiber for our country and for export to other markets around the globe. It is estimated that between 3.6 and 6.8 million acres have been inundated as a result of snowmelt, rainfall, and flooding.

This has resulted in significant crop losses for farmers who had already planted. For others, it means missing an entire growing season on some of the nation’s most highly productive farmland.

In many instances, farmland has been destroyed forever. Sand carried by the flooding has been deposited on fields with no hope of being used again for agricultural purposes. In areas where levees were breached or intentionally blown up by the federal government, the land looks like a moonscape with the water cutting huge trenches in what was once flat, productive farmland.
In southeast Missouri, levees were blown up and 130,000 acres of productive farmland, homes, and wildlife were flooded. In Louisiana, the Morganza floodway was opened, inundating thousands of acres of planted fields. These levees must be repaired to their existing level of protection.

Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana, among others, have experienced heavy damage to homes, business, farmland, and property in the millions of dollars.

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