Despite the wet summer weather which has blighted Europe, causing delays to harvesting and creating ideal conditions for pests and disease in the UK, farmers in the American Midwest remain in an even more invidious position. Prolonged, expansive drought in the region has led to massive crop losses and downgrades, sparking price rises in the grain markets.

There have been reports of farmers slaughtering their animals as fodder becomes scarcer and feed prices continue to rise. Meanwhile the drought continues to worsen. The United States government declared the situation to be a national disaster last month, after half of all US counties were revealed to be suffering the effects of drought.

In the past week, experts have forecast some palliative rainfall for this month, which it is hoped will ease rallies in the grain markets.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation speculated last month that the drought would spark dramatic price rises and that these would affect the world’s poorest most acutely. The FAO will make an announcement on the drought’s knock-on effects for global food prices in its Food Price Index report next week.  

Amidst the panic over the US drought, officials from the House of Representatives announced that a series of emergency measures may be passed as early as this afternoon to reduce pressure on affected farmers. The measures could include payments of up to $100,000 for livestock farmers to offset high feed costs and animal deaths.

Following calls from the US Department of Agriculture, members of the House suggested they would vote on the $383 million farm bill, including emergency drought measures, before Congress breaks for five weeks on Friday.

Under the bill, livestock farmers would receive compensation of 75 percent of the value of stock killed by drought and support covering 60 percent of feed costs for between one and three months. Money has also been made available for feed and water provisioning for livestock, bees and farmed fish.

However, there have been protests from environmental groups who have argued that US government plans to open environmentally sensitive land to grazing are irresponsible.

Today, an additional 200 US counties were designated ‘disaster areas’ as government officials strive to support farmers affected by the adverse weather. The designation will open up reduced rate loans to stricken farmers who have found themselves without support programs in the United States’ worst drought in fifty years.

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