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Aug 21, 2007 7:16 pm US/Central
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Organic Farmers Suffer Large Losses In Minn., Wis.
Milwaukee, Wis. (AP) ―
Richard de Wilde estimated he lost hundreds of thousands of dollars this week when a foot of rain inundated his organic beef and vegetable farm near Viroqua in southwestern Wisconsin.
"Out of our 100 acres of vegetables, we had easily 30 under water," de Wilde, one of the state's largest organic farmers, said in a phone interview Tuesday. "If that was all a loss, it's $300,000. I'm thinking we're going to be able to salvage some out of there, but certainly it's more than $200,000 just counting crops."
He'll also have to replace fences, equipment and other water-damaged property at the 200-acre Harmony Valley Farm in Vernon County.
The damage from this week's floods could push some organic farmers out of business and affect the price of organic products nationwide. Only California has more certified organic farms than Wisconsin, and more than a third of the Badger State's 994 organic farms are in the five counties where the waters rose.
Organic farms in southeast Minnesota and northeast Iowa were affected by the rain as well.
Craig Scott is one of the last employees left at Avalanche Organics on the Kickapoo River near Viola. About a dozen workers were laid off this week, and the 51-year-old farmer said he took a pay cut just to keep what little work he can while the water recedes.
"It's definitely catastrophic for this farm," Scott said. "It's affecting the owners, they can hardly deal with it. They'll probably leave farming."
Mark Kastel, co-founder of The Cornucopia Institute, a farm policy group, said many other farmers could be forced out of business, unable to cover their costs because crop insurance may not pay them the same price they would have received for selling their products at market.
"You could see a farmer who is making a modest profit and doing fine pushed into a very serious financial deficit for this growing year," Kastel said. "Our worst fear is it endangers some of their livelihood."
Downstream from Vernon County in Crawford County, University of Wisconsin extension agent Vance Haugen said many farmers grow organic products there although only 14 produce enough to meet the guidelines for certification. More than a third of the county's 1,000 farms had significant damage and early estimates peg the crop loss at around $8 million, he said.
"I've been here 15 years, and this is one of the strongest and most violent episodes I've ever seen," he said.
Most farmers said this week's floods were unique in affecting a wide swath of counties in Wisconsin and Minnesota.
In Winona County, Minn., agriculture officials said the storms could set back organic cattle farming, which has grown in popularity in the recent years.
"We have a lot of steep, hilly country and we've had a lot of mudslides," said Tom Van Der Linden, the local University of Minnesota extension educator. "The biggest problem we've had is mudslides that have taken out fences and livestock have gotten loose."
Jack Hedin, who owns an 80-acre family produce farm in and around Rushford, Minn., said that portions of his fields remain underwater, and that roads have washed out around Featherstone Fruits and Vegetables, making it impossible to deliver the produce to local co-ops.
"It will be days if not weeks until the roads are repaired," he said.
Hedin said nearly a third of the farm's entire cash flow for 2007 has been washed away.
"I spent all morning with our bookkeeper, and at this point we've already written off $200,000 worth of produce," he said.
Even if the water has already receded, many areas in Wisconsin and Minnesota remain too moist to plant fall vegetable crops like mixed greens and spinach.
The planting window for those will close by the first week of September, leaving farms unable to get the water off their property fast enough with less products to sell in 2008.
Still, even with the problems, de Wilde and others said they'll forge on.
"We're going to survive, one way or the other," he said. "We are going to survive and be back, that's for sure. We're not going to quit."
(© 2007 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)