Flooding Devastates Organic Farms
Markets Brace For Produce Shortage
Updated: 8:12 pm CDT August 24, 2007
MADISON, Wis. -- The Willy Street Co-op is bracing for a shortage of produce after several organic suppliers in southwestern Wisconsin are dealing with problems caused by flooding.
VIDEO: Watch The ReportCo-op managers said they are doing what they can to keep produce in stock."It's not going to effect the price as much as it's going to effect the availability. At first, we're probably not going to have those items available, but eventually we'll get them from much farther away. The prices will be about the same. It's just that we normally don't order from anywhere else but local during this time of the year," said Lynn Olson, corporative services manager at Willy Street Co-op.Managers said that vegetables like kale and spinach will be directly affected and beets and squash could be in short supply.Wisconsin is the second-largest organic farming state in the nation, and many organic suppliers are located in a state-declared disaster area.Harmony Valley Farms near Viroqua in Vernon County said it suffered serious losses from torrential rains and flooding."We keep thinking it's going to stop, you know, but I started to get a little discouraged today," said Richard De Wilde, a farmer at Harmony Valley Farms.De Wilde said that his 100 acres have seen 20 inches of rain over the last week, which has left at least 30 acres of vegetables under the Bad Axe River."Right now, it's about 8 feet deep. Usually it runs 1 foot deep. So that's a lot of water right there, but then it was out of the banks to the tune of 2, 3, 4 feet all over the valley," De Wilde said.Farmers are picking what's left of the produce, but De Wilde estimated his losses at $300,000 or more. He said that leaves a question as to how much crew he'll keep."At least two of them are saying I'm out of business. If that's the case, it's going to be a lot less produce," De Wilde said. "We're just going to deal with it as best we can and sort of keep going with the optimism that the money thing will work out. We have till next year."As a farmer, De Wilde said he has made his peace with nature. But he said it's hard not to think about what could have been."We were just a few months from having a good season -- both financially and our customers were all happy, and it's all down the river," De Wilde said.De Wilde said he has crop insurance but doubted that it will give him much help. He said he makes about $10,000 an acre on his vegetables but that there isn't much federal documentation that will support that for insurance.
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