99 percent of Texas counties are in drought according to the Texas Water Development Board. What does this mean for Texas Agriculture. Last year 12 billion dollars were paid out in federal crop insurance across the country, but we have a record planting of corn this year. And there is no garauntee that an early fall won't wipe that planting out.
Frank DeStefano, a corn farmer in Mumford Texas sees an average year for his crop but the water he needs to water it he has been ordered to stop taking water out of the Brazos by the Texas Comission for Environmental Quality (TCEQ). He talks to us about the action taken by the Texas Farm Bureau asking TCEQ to stop giving preference to the Dow Corporation.
Later in the hour Dr. Travis Miller, professor and associate head of the AgriLife Extension program at Texas A&M University, talked about what we are seeing statewide to combat the drought. We were also joined by Gary Nabhan, professor and author of Growing Food in a Hotter Drier Land: Lessons From Desert Farmers in Adapting to Uncertain Climates" on what the future holds for agricultural production. He recently wrote an op-ed for the New York Times entitled "Our Coming Food Crisis."
