Hurricane Dean? No. But It's Devastating

While all eyes are on Hurricane Dean's tremendous winds and rain, the Midwest and Plains in the United States is quietly picking through the devastation on a smaller scale.

At least 12 people have died, and floods and mudslides have wreaked havoc in the wake of Tropical Storm Erin and other intense storms, according to press accounts. Rainfall of up to 15 inches in some places isolated towns, washed out farms and destroyed property.

Farms along the Kickapoo River in Wisconsin suffered millions of dollars in damages after heavy and sustained rains recently washed away what would have otherwise been a stellar crop.

Some of the farms most affected weren't the big corn and soybean farms, according to a story in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, but smaller organic produce farms -- a big part of the farming landscape in that region.

"There are farmers who have lived here 60 or 70 years and have never seen it flood this bad," Josh Engel, who with brother Noah started Driftless Organic when they were teenagers more than 13 years ago, told the Journal Sentinel.

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