Industrial agriculture degrades and destroys wetlands. Changes to the Clean Water Act in 2023 rolled back federal wetland protections, further increasing risks from corporate agribusiness.
Wetlands are vital natural flood barriers, and when they are destroyed by industrial agricultural corporations, people pay the price. The Union of Concerned Scientists found that 30 million acres of wetlands in the Upper Midwest provide nearly $23 billion in annual flood mitigation benefits to homeowners. Over the long term, protecting these wetlands could prevent between $323 billion and $754 billion in residential flood damages in this region.
The next farm bill offers a pivotal opportunity to protect wetlands and address the devastating damage industrial agriculture inflicts on these essential ecosystems.
In this report
Flood Mitigation Value of Wetlands in the Upper Midwest
and 3 percent discount rate, respectively.
Storymap: Wetlands in Peril
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Citation
Woods, Stacy. 2024. Wetlands in Peril: How Industrial Agriculture Damages Critical Ecosystems, Increasing Flood Risk in the Upper Midwest. Cambridge, MA: Union of Concerned Scientists. https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/wetlands-peril
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