Canopy Roads of South Georgia

Want some 2,4-D with that drifting Roundup and Paraquat?

Got enough Roundup and Paraquat drifting onto you? Want some 2,4-D with that? If not, you can send your comments to USDA now. Hey, what if we all plowed under the mutant pigweed instead of breeding more with poison soup!

Tom Philpott wrote for Mother Jones 18 July 2012, USDA Prepares To Greenlight Gnarliest GMO Soy Yet,

In early July, on the sleepy Friday after Independence Day, the USDA quietly signaled its intention to greenlight a new genetically engineered soybean seed from Dow AgroSciences. The product is designed to produce soy plants that withstand 2,4-D, a highly toxic herbicide (and, famously, the less toxic component in the notorious Vietnam War-era defoliant Agent Orange).

Readers may remember that during an even-sleepier period—the week between Christmas and the New Year—the USDA made a similar move on Dow's 2,4-D-ready corn.

If the USDA deregulates the two products—as it has telegraphed its intention to do—Dow will enjoy a massive profit opportunity. Every year, about half of all US farmland is planted in corn and soy. Currently, Dow's rival Monsanto has a tight grip on weed management in corn-and-soy country. Upwards of 90 percent of soy and 70 percent of corn is engineered to withstand another herbicide called glyphosate through highly profitable Monsanto's Roundup Ready seed lines. And after so many years of lashing so much land with the same herbicide, glyphosate-resistant superweeds are now vexing farmers and "alarming" weed-control experts throughout the midwest.

And that's where Dow's 2,4-D-ready corn and soy seeds come in. Dow's novel products will be engineered to withstand glyphosate and 2,4-D, so farmers can douse their fields with both herbicides; the 2,4-D will kill the weeds that glyphosate no longer can. That's the marketing pitch, anyway.

There's more in the article.

It can also get into your well water, and then, according to EPA:

Tomatoes on the wash screen, Okra Paradise Farms, 15 July 2012

Before:

Before
John S. Quarterman, Gretchen Quarterman, Brown Dog, Yellow Dog,
Pictures by John S. Quarterman for Okra Paradise Farms, Lowndes County, Georgia, 15 July 2012.

After: Tomato, jalapeno, habanero, bird pepper:

Zucca, Okra Paradise Farms, 15 July 2012

More than twice as wide as my foot:

More than twice as wide as my foot
John S. Quarterman, Gretchen Quarterman, Brown Dog, Yellow Dog,
Pictures by John S. Quarterman for Okra Paradise Farms, Lowndes County, Georgia, 15 July 2012.

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Okra @ Okra Paradise Farms 2012-07-12

Okra and corn:

Okra and corn
John S. Quarterman, Gretchen Quarterman, Brown Dog, Yellow Dog,
Pictures by John S. Quarterman for Okra Paradise Farms, Lowndes County, Georgia, 12 July 2012.

Bloom and okra:

Tomatoes, Okra Paradise Farms, 15 July 2012

Gretchen with tomatoes from one day:

Gretchen with tomatoes from one day
Picture by John S. Quarterman for Okra Paradise Farms, Lowndes County, Georgia, 12 July 2012.

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Advanced sheets-Field operations of the Bureau of Soils, 1917

What was your county like a hundred years ago, roads, houses, streams, ponds, and soils? Digital Library of Georgia in association with the University of Georgia Map Library has made available old soil maps from around 1910-1920 online in a viewer that can pan and zoom. Detail of Cat Creek Road, Lowndes County, Georgia in 1917:

Detail of Cat Creek Road
John S. Quarterman, Gretchen Quarterman, Brown Dog, Yellow Dog,
Screenshot by John S. Quarterman for Okra Paradise Farms, Lowndes County, Georgia, 13 July 2012.

The soils haven't changed much (Tf is Tifton A soil, for example), but the roads and houses have, and many streams have been dammed for ponds.

They seem to have all Georgia counties. Here's Tift County in 1910 and Cook County in 1931.

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Owed to Don Davis of the Lowndes County Museum at the 11 July 2012 WWALS Watershed Coalition meeting.

 

Largest U.S. declared drought disaster ever

It's not just us. More than half the country is in drought, and almost one third is in a federal disaster area for drought: the biggest ever declared.

Dashiell Bennett wrote for Atlantic Wire today, U.S. Declares the Largest Natural Disaster Area Ever Due to Drought

The blistering summer and ongoing drought conditions have the prompted the U.S. Agriculture Department to declare a federal disaster area in more than 1,000 counties covering 26 states. That's almost one-third of all the counties in the United States, making it the largest distaster declaration ever made by the USDA.

The declaration covers almost every state in the southern half of the continental U.S., from South Carolina in the East to California in the West. It's also includes Colorado and Wyoming (which have been hit by devatasting wildfires) and Illinois, Indiana, Kansas and Nebraska in the Midwest. However, it does not include Iowa, which is the largest grain and corn producer in the U.S. This map show the counties affected:

Look, there we are, right in the center of the red area in the southeast!

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Feeding Tom the spider

Feeding Tom the house spider.

Pictures by John S. Quarterman for Okra Paradise Farms, Lowndes County, Georgia, 9 July 2012.

The circle in the bottom right is where I set the bug in Tom's web. He came right out and got it.

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Gretchen in the Okra

Taller than she is:

Pictures by John S. Quarterman for Okra Paradise Farms, Lowndes County, Georgia, 8 July 2012.

A lot of okra:

A day at the market: Valdosta Farm Days 7 July 2012

Terry Davis picking corn:

Terry Davis picking corn
Pictures by John S. Quarterman for Okra Paradise Farms, Lowndes County, Georgia, 7 July 2012.

Okra, potato, pepper, plus cornbread muffins and collard seeds: