Floods, floods and more floods


Time to stay calm. In the US, the Mississippi is flooding, putting large areas of farmland in Iowa under water. Cities like Cedar Rapids and Iowa City are also under water. And in India... And in China... And in North Korea...

I used to live in Iowa, it's a great place with a lot of Scandinavian descendants. Maybe that's why I feel so sad to see these great plains covered with muddy water. I know the people there will fight hard to get back to normal again, but what is normal?

* Corn and soybean prices stayed near record levels as millions of acres of cropland have been lost or damaged in the world's largest grain exporter. Meat prices also soared, in line with the costs for feeding cattle, hogs and chickens.

* Corn prices at the Chicago Board of Trade soared above US$8 a bushel for the first time on Monday and stayed near there on Tuesday in fears Midwest farmers will not be able to grow anything on as many as 5 million acres (2 million hectares).

* The problems add up to more food inflation for not just US consumers, but also dozens of countries that buy US grain. The United States exports 54 percent of the world's corn, 36 percent of soybeans and 23 percent of wheat. And of course, you-know-which-country imports a lot of its protein from this very part of the world, "normally".

Treehugger: A Prayer for the Farmers and Everyone in Iowa

Reuters: Levee Breaks as US Midwest Flood Damage Mounts

(Left: Image of flooded corn field in Oaksville, Iowa)

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