The recent coverage of our latest round of Midwestern floods has put me in mind of the costs of our addiction to cheap, low-quality food produced with the use of enormous amounts of chemicals and petroleum. The costs are bad enough during normal times, but, as this article in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune notes, they are exacerbated by flooding:
“The floodwaters that deluged much of Iowa have done more than knock out drinking water and destroy homes. They have also spread a noxious brew of sewage, farm chemicals and fuel that could sicken anyone who wades in.”
Flooding causes all of the toxic farm chemicals that farmers and farmworkers are exposed to on a regular basis to come flooding in the homes of city people. Hopefully, the volume of water dilutes these chemicals to the extent that little harm is done, but the long-term effects of chemical exposure are hard to pinpoint. If the farms of Iowa were all practicing organic agriculture, we would, at least, not have to worry about one element of this “noxious brew”.
In addition, there is the likelihood that the flooding might not have been as bad if we were using the land differently. Iowa has lost 90% of its water-absorbing wetlands, according to this article in the Washington Post:
"I sense that the flooding is not the result of a 500-year event," said Jerry DeWitt, director of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University. "We're farming closer to creeks, farming closer to rivers. Without adequate buffer strips, the water moves rapidly from the field directly to the surface water."
The boondoggle of corn-based ethanol is only making this worse.
And what about climate change? We have enough evidence of the other horrific effects of climate change that we don’t even need to prove a link to these floods to make this our top issue. But it’s certainly on the minds of people I talk to in southwest Wisconsin’s Driftless Region, where they are suffering their second wave of catastrophic flooding in the space of nine months. My friend Rufus Hauke, an organic farmer with Keewaydin Farms has been asking “What’s it going to take?!” to get the majority to take real action to reverse climate change. As town chairman, Rufus spent much of the last weeks trying to make sure the roads stay open in his rural township near Viola, Wisconsin. When not in crisis mode, he is working on plans for a local food distribution center that is fossil fuel-free (a hopeful example of such a building is the new Legacy Center at the Aldo Leopold Center in Baraboo, Wisconsin).
Hopefully, every new flood inspires a new crop of Rufuses, with new plans on how to make our lives sustainable. And hopefully the rest of us find ways to support them and invest in their work.
More on these issues can be found on my organization’s web site: Local Fair Trade Network.