A group of officials from the Environmental Protection Agency recently toured Louisiana, meeting with local farm officials to discuss the challenges facing Louisiana agriculture.
Louisiana has been in a tough agricultural position for the past several years. After the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, along with a series of major tropical storms throughout the past several years, many state farmers have been hurting. The destruction of coastland and serious damage done to much of the state’s valuable farmland has hurt production for the past several years.
A major part of the EPA tours looked at fragile, and severely damaged marshland along the coasts, inspected local waterways to investigate water quality, and considered some of the environmental challenges Louisiana farmers may face.
In addition, officials toured rice farms, sugar plantations, and seafood farms. “I feel that they got a real good taste of Louisiana agriculture,” said Carrie Castille, Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry associate commissioner. “Our goal for this visit is for EPA to see our producers as valuable resources on environmental issues affecting agriculture and forestry.”
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Written by: Justin Ellison / Farm Plus Staff Writer