Floods Affecting Organic Farming

"Organic Farmers, like others who work in the agriculture business, make their living in the soil; but when that soil is covered with flood water, organic farms have big problems. "It's already been a cold, late spring and with this damage on top of it we're definitely looking at significant economic damage to our crops," says Joe Pedretti, Farmer Outreach Manager for Organic Valley.

Organic Valley in La Farge is a cooperative with more than 500 organic farms in Wisconsin supporting it. For some of their farmers a big part of their business is harvesting and selling during the late spring and early summer. "The flood just brought in a lot of silt and buried plants, so the biggest problem right now is that is just buried a bunch of plants that we needed...right now," says Driftless Organics Co-Owner Noah Engel."

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