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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Extreme Summer Weather's Long-Term Effect on PA and the Nation

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Friday, July 29, 2011   

HARRISBURG, Pa. - Once again in Pennsylvania, the mercury is ready to jump this weekend. It's been a hot, dry summer across much of the country, which could have an impact on shoppers' wallets in the short term – and an even broader impact, long-term.

Ryan Stockwell, agriculture program manager for the National Wildlife Federation, says higher food prices are almost a guarantee with crop production suffering in so many places at once. He points out that extreme weather in states like Texas, where temperatures have topped 100 degrees in some places for 40 days straight, has a direct impact on Pennsylvanians – and everyone else.

"This is going to impact everybody, from the Northwest to the Northeast and around the globe."

What remains to be seen, he notes, is whether the weather patterns so far this summer turn out to be the exception or the norm in years to come.

"If we are seeing changes in long-term weather patterns, this is going to change the nature of agriculture for these regions, in that farmers are going to have to find a way to equip themselves to basically operate within these new conditions."

While excess heat and lack of rainfall have farmers literally experiencing growing pains this summer, Stockwell says there are steps they can take to curb the effects of drought. These include using cover crops to manage soil fertility and quality, and conservation tillage, which leaves a previous year's crop residue to reduce soil erosion and runoff.

"In the end, this can be a very positive development for agriculture, in that we become more efficient with our inputs and we can actually see prices come down, and farmers can survive on lower profits."

He adds that, although there is a fair amount of food grown and consumed locally in the United States, regions are most often intertwined based on agricultural supply and demand.



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