I honestly did not know that things were this bad.  Severe drought is crippling winter wheat production in the middle of the country, agricultural production in many areas of California is being hit extremely hard by unprecedented flooding, and orange production in Florida is down more than 60 percent from last season due to a combination of factors.  Of course this comes at a time when the entire world is dealing with a major food crisis.  As I discussed in a previous article, even CNN is admitting that we are currently in the midst of "the worst food crisis in modern history".  So this is a year when we need U.S. food production to be very strong, and that simply is not happening.

No state produces more winter wheat than Kansas does, and right now less than 20 percent of the winter wheat in the state "is in good to excellent condition"…

Less than 20 percent of Kansas winter wheat is in good to excellent condition. The U.S. Drought Monitor says only 15 percent of Kansas' acres are not experiencing any level of drought stress. More than 36 percent of the state reported D4 exceptional drought compared to just a little over one percent last year. D3 extreme drought conditions are hurting 16 percent of the state, with D2 severe drought hitting 13 percent of Kansas.

Unfortunately, the winter wheat in other crucial states is also greatly suffering due to seemingly endless drought conditions…

Colorado winter wheat was rated 27% good to excellent and 33% very poor to poor. Oklahoma's and Texas' crops were rated at 26% and 18% good to excellent, and 40% and 47% very poor to poor, respectively, he said.