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<ul class="summary-list"><li>Hurricane Milton's estimated damage to Florida's agriculture could go up to $2.5 billion.</li><li>That's according to estimates from the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.</li></ul>Hurricane Milton singlehandedly wrecked as much havoc on Florida's agriculture as three other major hurricanes combined, according to new estimates from the state's agriculture department.Milton, a Category 3 hurricane that made landfall on Florida's western coast on October 9, has severely damaged the state's crops and farming infrastructure, the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS) said.The department on Thursday said that based on its initial damage assessment, the estimated total losses to the Sunshine State's agriculture industry now range "between $1.5 and $2.5 billion."The commodities affected by hurricane damage include animal products, citrus and non-citrus fruit farming, field crops, greenhouses, and vegetable farming, per the damage assessment.The FDACS said in its damage assessment that Milton created "major structural impacts" on cattle ranches. Separately, a majority of the citrus acreage in Florida was situated in counties hit by Milton, which means "significant production losses" from farmers are expected, per the FDACS.The FDACS added in its Thursday statement that three major hurricanes that hit the state in the last 13 months — <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/before-after-satellite-photos-hurricane-helene-destruction-florida-2024-10">Helene</a>, Debby, and <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/hurricane-idalia-first-severe-hurricane-hit-florida-big-bend-2023-8">Idalia</a> — caused more than $1.5 billion in damages combined.Florida's commissioner of agriculture, Wilton Simpson, urged the US Department of Agriculture to issue a disaster declaration for counties affected by Milton, which would hasten aid and assistance for impacted farmers.In a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://ccmedia.fdacs.gov/content/download/117392/file/secretary-tom-vilsack-letter.pdf">letter</a> to Tom Vilsack, the secretary of the US Department of Agriculture, on Thursday, Simpson said, "We are a major agricultural producer and exporter, with $8.88 billion in agricultural products sold annually as of the latest USDA agricultural census.""Agriculture makes up one of the largest portions of Florida's $1.2 trillion gross domestic product, and it is critical that this engine of our economy has the resources they need to continue to operate."He said that the hurricane had devastated livestock, nurseries, crops, and agricultural equipment and infrastructure."If immediate action is not taken, we are at risk of losing significant agriculture, aquaculture, and silviculture operations in this region due to circumstances beyond our farmers' control," Simpson added in the letter.Florida's agricultural industry is a major driver of the state's economy. It has around 44,400 farms and ranches, spanning over 9.7 million acres, per <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.nass.usda.gov/Statistics_by_State/Florida/Publications/Annual_Statistical_Bulletin/2024/FloridaAgriculturalOverview.pdf">numbers</a> from the Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Statistics Service.In 2023, Florida accounted for 20% of the country's orange production, 34% of its watermelon production, and 28% of its grapefruit production, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service.According to an October 10 note from analysts from Fitch Ratings, Hurricane Milton has resulted in an <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/hurricane-milton-insurance-fitch-50-billion-losses-2024-10">estimated $30 billion to $50 billion of insured losses</a> in Florida<a target="_blank" rel=" nofollow" href="https://www.fitchratings.com/research/insurance/hurricane-milton-effect-on-global-re-insurance-ratings-likely-limited-10-10-2024">.</a>Before the hurricane made landfall, Moody's Analytics estimated that <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/hurricane-milton-crashing-into-trillion-worth-of-property-moodys-2024-10">$1.1 trillion worth of commercial property</a> would be exposed to dangerous hurricane winds.According to an estimate by Moody's Analytics on October 8, more than 235,000 commercial real estate properties in Florida had a greater than 50% chance of being exposed to wind speeds of at least 50 miles per hour.Milton came just days after Hurricane Helene hit Florida and other southeastern states, leaving more than <a target="_blank" rel=" nofollow" class="" href="https://apnews.com/article/hurricane-helene-death-toll-asheville-north-carolina-34d1226bb31f79dfb2ff6827e40587fc">200 people dead</a>.In a report on September 30, Moody's Analytics projected the damage from Helene to be between <a target="_blank" rel="" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/analysts-estimate-up-to-34-billion-damage-from-hurricane-helene-2024-10">$20 billion and $34 billion.</a>Representatives of Florida's Department of Agriculture didn't respond to a request for comment from Business Insider, sent outside business hours.

3 major hurricanes in the last 13 months did billions of dollars of damage to Florida's farmlands — and that was before Milton

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Researchers say Canadian super pigs, a cross of between domestic pigs and wild boars, could invade the US.</li><li>They can withstand more cold than wild hogs, which already cause billions in damage in the South.</li></ul>Researchers have warned that <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/super-pigs-bred-in-canada-escaped-captivity-now-invading-us-2023-4">Canadian "super pigs"</a> could soon invade the US, potentially causing millions of dollars in damage — and four states in particular are especially at risk.The so-called super pigs are a cross between a domestic pig and an Eurasian wild boar, brought to Canada in the 1980s as a new exotic pork product. Farmers eventually bred the two types of swine to make pigs that were larger, more prolific, and could withstand cold <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/canadian-in-us-doesnt-understand-why-americans-want-to-move-2024-5">Canadian</a> winters.But when the boar market collapsed in 2001, many of the pigs were let loose, leaving the wild, super-charged pigs to proliferate. Today, they are common in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba and have been documented in most Canadian provinces."They are the worst <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/weird-invasive-species-damaging-us-environment-from-nutria-to-ticks-2023-12">invasive</a> large mammal on the planet. Period," Ryan Brook, a wildlife researcher and professor at the University of Saskatchewan who has studied the pigs for over a decade, told Business Insider last year.A study published this month in the journal <a target="_blank" href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10530-024-03326-1">Biological Invasions</a> found that northeastern Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and western parts of Minnesota are the areas in the US most vulnerable to super pig occupation.The researchers used data from GPS collars on feral pigs to follow their movement patterns and determine their invasion potential. They found the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/airbnb-experience-with-pet-pig-2023-9">pigs</a> were mostly located in forests, fields of crops, and wetlands. The pigs' apparent preferences and the opportunities for habitat connectivity indicate those areas of the northern US have "a high potential for invasive wild pigs" to move throughout them, the study said."Our work highlights a need for monitoring and science-based response strategies for likely southward spread of this invasive species to prevent or reduce potential crop damage, risks to native species, and disease transmission to humans, pets, livestock, and wildlife," the researchers wrote.<div type="image" title="Feral pigs" height="2116" width="3000" msid="110619281" hostid="261" sizebytes="640666"></div>Brook called the super pigs an "<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-invasive-species-threaten-the-future-of-humanity-un-report-2023-9">environmental train wreck</a>." They can grow to over 600 pounds and eat just about anything, preying on native species like frogs and salamanders, the eggs of ground-nesting birds like ducks and geese, and even white-tailed deer. They destroy agricultural crops, especially corn, by eating them or tearing up the ground to access plant roots and insect larvae. They also carry diseases that can infect animals and people.The resulting destruction adds up. According to USDA estimates, feral pigs already cause $2.5 billion worth of damage to US agriculture annually.Those pigs, located in California and throughout the South, primarily Texas and Florida, are confined to warmer climates. They're the descendants of pigs first brought to the Americas in the 1500s by Europeans as a food source and later escaped or were set loose. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.aphis.usda.gov/operational-wildlife-activities/feral-swine#:~:text=Ongoing%20research%20indicates%20that%20costs,golf%20courses%20and%20public%20parks">Feral swine</a> in the US today includes domestic pigs, wild boar, and even crossbreeds between the two, but they are not adapted to colder temperatures.If the Canadian super pigs can establish populations in the northern US, farmers in colder climates, like the Dakotas, Montana, and Minnesota, could soon be terrorized by feral swine, too.Both Canada and the US have struggled to control their feral pig populations."Eliminating or exterminating pigs is not an option in most of their US territory. Limiting the damage to crops, ecosystems, and native species is the best course of action," according to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.fs.usda.gov/research/srs/products/compasslive/even-most-promising-new-management-tools-struggle-keep-invasive-wild-pigs">USDA Forest Service researcher John Kilgo</a>, who studies wild pigs in South Carolina.Hunting, a common wildlife-management tool in the US, has been proposed as a solution, but Brooks said the super pigs reproduce too quickly for hunting to keep up and that they also adapt quickly and become more elusive.So, regardless of what you've heard, it's unlikely you can <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bill-cassidy-says-people-need-ar-15s-kill-feral-pigs-2022-5">shoot your way out</a> of a super pig invasion.

Where Canada's 'super pigs' are most likely to invade the US — and potentially cause millions of dollars in damage

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Tulare Lake used to be the largest lake west of the Mississippi River.</li><li>Farmers diverted the lake's water in the 1920s and replaced it with farmland.</li></ul>California's <a href="https://www.insider.com/california-weather-whiplash-floods-drought-getting-worse-atmospheric-rivers-2023-1">heavy rainfall this past winter</a> may have ended the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/take-a-look-at-lakes-that-dried-up-california-drought-2021-6">years-long drought</a>, but it also brought back the long-dormant Tulare Lake.This phantom lake — which occasionally resurfaces during years of unusually high precipitation — is <a href="https://www.kcrw.com/culture/shows/good-food/diet-culture-parenting-sri-lankan-cuisine-farmland-water/tulare-lake-water-central-valley-california-mark-arax" target="_blank" rel="noopener">larger than it's been in 150 years</a>.The basin began rapidly flooding around March 12-14, when <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/151107/precipitation-piles-on-in-california" target="_blank" rel="noopener">two major storms hit California</a>.The flooding was so massive that NASA satellite <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/151284/tulare-lake-grows" target="_blank" rel="noopener">images captured it from space.</a> Here's what the lakebed looked like on February 1, before the flooding:<div type="image" title="Satellite image of Tulare Lake before it flooded in 2023." height="1572" width="1741" msid="101802097" hostid="261" sizebytes="277356"></div>And here's what it looked like on April 30:<div type="image" title="Satellite image of Tulare Lake flooded in 2023." height="1572" width="1741" msid="101802099" hostid="261" sizebytes="242150"></div><h2>Tulare lake flooding threatens California farms</h2>The Tulare lakebed, which is located in the southern San Joaquin Valley, happens to be set on the <a href="https://cawaterlibrary.net/hydrological-region/tulare-lake/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">largest agricultural region in the entire state</a> of California.NASA said the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-of-california-floods-show-damage-rescues-more-rain-coming-2023-1">devastating flooding</a> will likely <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/151284/tulare-lake-grows" target="_blank" rel="noopener">continue into 2024</a>. That means local farmers may not be able to plant new crops <a href="https://asmith.ucdavis.edu/news/most-tulare-lake-lies-inside-one-big-farm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">until 2025</a>.That likely drop in supply has the potential to <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-us-canada-65071268">drive up food prices</a>, particularly for produce.<div type="image" title="Four satellite images showing the rapid progression of flooding in Tulare Lake." height="350" width="720" msid="101802101" hostid="261" sizebytes="57142"></div>As of June, the flooded parts of Tulare Lake spanned about <a href="https://abc7news.com/tulare-lake-reaches-peak-california-2023/13356811" target="_blank" rel="noopener">178 square miles</a>, or 113,920 acres — almost the size of Lake Tahoe.One acre-foot, the amount of water it takes to cover an acre of land to a depth of one foot, is equal to 325,851 gallons of water, United States Department of Agriculture meteorologist <a href="https://www.usda.gov/oce/weather-drought-monitor/staff" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Brad Rippey</a> told Insider in July.While it's unclear how deep Tulare Lake is now, if it's similar to its former <a href="https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2023-03-24/as-tulare-lake-reappears-floodwaters-raise-tensions-in-san-joaquin-valley" target="_blank" rel="noopener">average depth of about 30 feet</a>, that would translate to more than one trillion gallons of water that have flooded the region so far this year, Rippey said. That's enough to fill over 1.5 million Olympic-sized swimming pools.Many of the state's <a href="https://www.cdfa.ca.gov/Statistics/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">top agricultural commodities</a> are <a href="https://www.cdfa.ca.gov/Statistics/PDFs/2020_Ag_Stats_Review.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">grown in Tulare County</a>, which is the third largest agricultural producing-county in the state. In 2019, Tulare County churned out more than $7.5 billion worth of commodities, including dairy products, table grapes, navel oranges, and cattle.<div type="image" title="Flooded farm crops in Tulare Lake in California." height="683" width="1024" msid="101802103" hostid="261" sizebytes="37784"></div><a href="https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/billions/events" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration</a> estimated the damage from flooding across central California between December 2022 and March 2023 will cost roughly $4.6 billion.Rippey said crops in the vineyards and orchards, like nuts and berries, will likely sustain more damage than row crops since entire trees and vines will need to be replanted.<a href="https://www.tacfarming.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">TAC Farm</a> sits right at the southeast shoreline of the lakebed. Fortunately for owner Dennis Hutson, the water hasn't flooded his farmland yet.Hutson said he witnessed the flooding of Tulare Lake in 1983 and 1997. This time around, he noticed one key difference: the <a href="https://kmph.com/news/local/hwy-43-closed-south-of-corcoran-due-to-flooding-lake-success-porterville-sierra-nevada-tule-river-tulare-county-kings-county-california-atmospheric-river" target="_blank" rel="noopener">flooding of Highway 43</a> along the southern San Joaquin Valley. "You saw water on both sides of it, but I don't recall the actual roads flooding at that time," he told Insider, adding that this unusual flooding may be due to local farmers possibly <a href="https://sjvwater.org/flooding-out-other-farmers-was-premeditated-by-the-powerful-j-g-boswell-company-one-farmer-asserts/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">vandalizing the levies</a> in order to drain the water from their land and redirect it elsewhere.<div type="image" title="Road with water covering it by flooding of Tulare Lake." height="683" width="1024" msid="101802105" hostid="261" sizebytes="51470"></div><h2>Rainfall and a melting snowpack: the perfect storm</h2>Tulare Lake was once the largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi River — until the 1920s when local farmers began diverting the water from the rivers feeding the lake.As for why the lake returned with a vengeance this spring, blame it on the <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/03/29/californias-snow-rain-totals-explained/11525451002/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">78 trillion gallons of water</a> and counting that have fallen on California between October 1, 2022 and March 20 of this year.By the end of February 2023, Tulare County had its <a href="https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/monitoring/climate-at-a-glance/county/mapping/4/pcp/202302/8/rank" target="_blank" rel="noopener">fourth wettest season on record</a>.Nicholas Pinter, professor of applied geosciences and associate director of the <a href="https://watershed.ucdavis.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Center for Watershed Sciences</a> at the University of California Davis, described Tulare Lake to Insider as "a bathtub without a drain.""Statewide, most flooding was concentrated in low spots in the topography, like Tulare Lake," he said during his May 23 testimony at the California Committee on Agriculture Assembly, which he shared with Insider. "After weeks of rain, the water had basically nowhere else to go."Meanwhile, the Southern Sierra Nevada snowpack <a href="https://water.ca.gov/News/News-Releases/2023/April-23/Snow-Survey-April-2023" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reached about 300% of the typical season peak in early April</a> — a record high.Here's what the snowpack looked like in March 2022:<div type="image" title="Satellite image of San Joaquin Valley showing snow amount in light blue on March 16, 2022." height="2191" width="3507" msid="101802107" hostid="261" sizebytes="696266"></div>Compared to March 2023:<div type="image" title="Satellite image of San Joaquin Valley on March 16, 2023 showing significantly larger light blue region of snow." height="2191" width="3507" msid="101802109" hostid="261" sizebytes="960076"></div>Tulare Lake began to reappear this March, before <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/california-storms-boost-snowpack-epic-skiing-conditions-amid-drought-2023-1">the Sierra Nevada snowpack</a> started meltin. But as temperatures rise into summer and the snowpack begins to melt, that water flows into the Southern Central Valley, Rippey said."If the snow melts too quickly, then the valley cannot drain it and Tulare Lake fills," he told Insider. "That's what is happening now. The lake has been sustained — and even further enlarged — during the snow-melt season."It's hard to predict how long the lake will remain, but given the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/temperatures-seen-surging-el-nino-weather-pattern-returns-wmo-2023-07-04/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">recent development of El Niño</a>, Rippey said climatological odds are tilted toward another wet winter — which could sustain Tulare Lake into 2024 or beyond.

Space photos show over 1 trillion gallons of water flooding crop fields in California, and it could mean higher food prices

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3 major hurricanes in the last 13 months did billions of dollars of damage to Florida's farmlands — and that was before Milton

Aditi Bharade

Where Canada's 'super pigs' are most likely to invade the US — and potentially cause millions of dollars in damage

Kelsey Vlamis

Space photos show over 1 trillion gallons of water flooding crop fields in California, and it could mean higher food prices

Rebecca Strong

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