Heavy rains have drenched the upper Midwest, ruining crops and threatening cities and towns with flooding:
NEWHALL, Iowa — Here, in some of the best soil in the world, the stunted stalks of Dave Timmerman’s newly planted corn are wilting in what sometimes look more like rice paddies than the plains, the sunshine glinting off of pools of collected water. Although time is running out, he has yet to plant all of his soybean crop because the waterlogged soil cannot support his footsteps, much less heavy machinery.
Mr. Timmerman’s small farm has been flooded four times in the past month by the Wildcat Creek, a tributary of the Cedar River which overflowed its banks at a record 31 feet last week, causing catastrophic damage in nearby Cedar Rapids and other eastern Iowa towns and farmsteads.
“In the lean years, we had beautiful crops but they weren’t worth much,†Mr. Timmerman said, surveying his farm, which his family has tended since his great-great-grandfather. “Now, with commodity prices sky high, mother nature is throwing us all these curve balls. I’m 42 years old and these are by far the poorest crops I’ve ever seen.â€
Over the weekend I attended the Samoyed specialty show conducted by my dog club, the Chicagoland Samoyed Club. I worked throughout the show, mostly selling catalogs at a table, and while working I couldn’t help but overhear the conversations going on around me.
Several of the exhibitors were from central Wisconsin and most told the same story of flooded fields in their county. One mentioned a neighbor who operated a farm with 500 acres of onions and a similar acreage planted in onions. Normally, the farmer employed 300-400 migrant workers a season, mostly Mexicans. This season he’d turned his workers away. The rains had destroyed the growing seedlings, it would take at least a month for his field to dry enough to replant, and there just wasn’t enough growing season left for a crop.
I suspect that we’ll see that story repeated hundreds or even thousands of times over.
Mexico has already experienced a slowdown in remittances sent home by workers here in the States due to a number of factors including slowing construction because of the credit crunch and increased workplace and border enforcement. I suspect we’ll see some Mexican workers returning home, others seeking work in U. S. cities. Jobs are already scarce—last month we had the highest unemployment rate in years.
Those returning home may well return to a Mexico of increasing contrasts. While remittances sent home to their struggling families have slowed, the precipitous increase in the price of oil means that the Mexican oil monopoly, Pemex, will have increased revenues which in turn means increased royalties and taxes paid to the Mexican government. The Mexican government’s and Pemex’s endemic corruption will mean that much of the money won’t go where it’s supposed to go but will line the pockets of corrupt officials.
How the Mexican people respond to this triple whammy—slowed construction in the U. S., flooding in the upper Midwest, and corruption at home—should prove very interesting.
