{"id":7658,"date":"2012-03-23T07:00:34","date_gmt":"2012-03-23T12:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/?p=7658"},"modified":"2012-03-22T21:32:50","modified_gmt":"2012-03-23T02:32:50","slug":"lost-to-the-drought-a-conversation-with-ag-commissioner-todd-staples","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/03\/23\/lost-to-the-drought-a-conversation-with-ag-commissioner-todd-staples\/","title":{"rendered":"Lost to the Drought: A Conversation with Ag Commissioner Todd Staples"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo by Filipa Rodrigues\/StateImpact Texas<\/p>

Texas Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples says losses from the drought are "unprecedented."<\/p><\/div>\n

The drought <\/a>has taken a toll on every Texan, and some of the worst hit have been the state\u2019s ranchers and farmers. New numbers from the state this week provide some grim statistics on their losses<\/a>. For some context, StateImpact Texas sat down with Texas Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples.<\/p>\n

Q: <\/span>So what do these updated numbers<\/a> mean?<\/p>\n

A: <\/span>These monumental numbers have confirmed what agricultural producers have known all along. That when you are as large a state as Texas, and you have a monumental drought event, you\u2019re going to have enormous financial losses.\u00a0 And these losses have been crippling for many operations: 58 percent of the cotton acreage in Texas was abandoned; and we\u2019ve had the largest liquidation of our cattle herd since the great depression. So the $7.62 billion number for agricultural losses<\/a>, combine that with about $600 million dollars in loss from timber, that\u2019s a big number of over $8 billion in losses. That\u2019s a huge cut in the gross domestic product of the state of Texas.<\/p>\n

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Q: <\/span>Have we ever seen anything even approaching this kind of loss before?<\/p>\n

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