On the (click here) Iowa Peace Network website, there is a nice article and slide show about the Iowa City Peoples Climate March and Campaign Nonviolence Rally on September 21....
July 11, 2013
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — Five years (click here) after record flooding drowned this manufacturing town and caused billions of dollars in damage, city officials and private investors are rebuilding homes and businesses on the Cedar River banks. But some people here are troubled to see structures rising in places where, not long ago, entire first stories were underwater....
We can't risk Iowa to anyone who is unwilling to see the forest for the trees in regard to the climate crisis.
Iowa ranks first in the nation in corn and soybean production. (click here)
Iowa pork producers raise 28% of all U.S. pork.
Hamburger from a single steer will make about 720 quarter-pound hamburgers.
The average size of an Iowa farm is around 333 acres (as of 2008).
In 2012 the production of Iowa corn was 1,835,358,239 bushels from 13,709,408 acres of 47,477 farms. These are small family farmers with about 300 acres of cropland dedicated to corn as a grain with a production of approximately 133 bushels per acre.
The same corn production in 2007 was 2,292,163,101 bushels from 13,842,202 acres of 50,095. These are small family farmers with about 300 acres of cropland dedicated to corn as a grain with a production of approximately 163 bushels per acre.
That is a net loss of 30 bushels per acre or more 20 percent in Iowa's corn crop. Noted also is the loss of nearly 3000 farms. With falling yields a small family farm would have a difficult time surviving.
The global economic collapse of 2008 also contributed to the loss in small family farms in Iowa.
These statistics came from the 2012 Census, Iowa (click here)
It is easy to see the climate is playing a role in the corn production in Iowa. I would think US Senator Harkin could speak to the changes in corp production in Iowa with his longevity as their Senator.
Article (click here)
Perhaps a one on one interview with the Senate Candidate Braley may prove to be appropriate in redressing this gross error.
Below is a chart from a report regarding the climate crisis and soil temperature in Iowa. It speaks to the increased temperatures experienced in Iowa's soil and the delay in applying fertilizer in the fall. The report also speaks to rainfall and flooding resulting in lower crop yields and loss of fertile soil due to erosion.
...Greater precipitation during the growing season, (click here) as we have been experiencing in Iowa (Takle 2011), has been associated with increased yields; however, excessive precipitation early in the growing season adversely affects crop productivity. Waterlogged soil conditions during early plant growth often result in shallower root systems that are more prone to diseases, nutrient deficiencies, and drought stress later in the season (Stolzy and Sojka 1984). An Iowa study indicated that waterlogged conditions are responsible for an average 32 percent loss in crop yields, and 100 percent crop production loss is expected in four out of 10 years on poorly drained areas (Kanwar et al. 1984). The maximum crop damage is observed when flooding occurs at the early stages of growth (Bhan 1977, Chaudhary et al. 1975). These data reinforce the common understanding that a dry spring followed by a wet summer is much better for yields than a wet spring followed by a dry summer....
The information listed in this article comes from several authors which is perfectly fine. Comprehensive reports regularly are drafted from individual reports authored by different scientists.
...Application of N in the fall when soil temperatures fall
below 50 degrees Fahrenheit is a common practice in Iowa. According to Iowa Environmental Mesonet observations (2010), soil temperatures in Ames, Iowa, historically are almost
certain to drop below 50 degrees Fahrenheit by October 2. However, on
October 24, 2010, most of Iowa still had soil temperatures into the mid to high 50s, which resulted in delaying N application that fall. The first fall day when the average soil temperatures are below 50oF is occurring later and later in the season (Fig. 3-2), a change that delays the time of fall N application....
Talking crops can be a difficult topic and talking climate almost impossible, however, local Ag agents and even the farmers themselves can spell out the changes in their crops and yields and how it effects the family farms in Iowa. Mr. Braley should not attempt to be an expert where he is not as Ms. Ernst has stated, however, there is a difference between a US Senator engaged in finding out the information from scientists and one content to ignore the science completely simply because she isn't one.
The evidence of the climate crisis in any state is everywhere, a candidate just has to look for it.
"Losing Ground" discusses the unrelenting damage to crop production in the USA by the climate crisis.
"Losing Ground" (click here)
By Craig Cox, Andrew Hug and Nils Bruzelius
Across wide swaths of Iowa and other Corn Belt states, the rich, dark soil that made this region the nation’s breadbasket is being swept away at rates many times higher than official estimates.
That is the disturbing picture revealed by scientists tracking soil erosion in Iowa after every storm that hits the state and producing an unprecedented degree of precision in soil erosion estimates. The Environmental Working Group corroborated the scientists’ findings with aerial surveys that produced striking visual evidence of the damage.
In April 2010, USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) released data estimating the rate of soil erosion on agricultural land in the United States. On the surface, the data from the 2007 National Resources Inventory (NRI) were reassuring. Erosion in Iowa averaged 5.2 tons per acre per year, only slightly higher than the allegedly “sustainable” rate of five tons per acre per year for most Iowa soils — the amount that can supposedly be lost each year without reducing agricultural productivity. Across the entire Corn Belt, erosion averaged only 3.9 tons per acre per year, according to the NRCS data....
