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Hyperion would destroy fertile land forever
Opinion | Sioux City Journal | Dale Harkness | February 17, 2010
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ELK POINT, S.D. -- Hyperion supporters dwell on the project's jobs benefits, but they don't talk about lost farmland and lost economic productivity related to that land. Consider that Hyperion has options to purchase 6,000 acres nd that those acres could be taken out of agricultural production.
Let’s split those 6,000 acres based on existing Union County land use, figuring 4,000 for corn and 2,000 for soybeans. Economists’ modeling calculates income acitivity related to 4,000 corn acres is $621,540. The model also reveals that income from 2,000 bean acres equals $207,184. Total annual income coming from crop production on 6,000 acres is $828,724. These are annual income approximations spread among a variey of people such as farmers, seed sellers, loan officers, hardware clerks, fertilizer technicians, implement mechanics, and more, and these are incomes that stay in the local community and circulate in the local community. Hyperion will eliminate sizable and traditional forms of income – over $828,00 each year – in our area.
Additionally, consider this: Up to 800,000 bushels of corn and 90,000 bushels of soybeans won’t be grown yearly because Hyperion will take farmland out of production. Did you know that Union County has the most agriculturally productive land in South Dakota? Last year Union County topped South Dakota in per-acre yields for both corn and soybeans.
Hyperion will destroy up to 6,000 acres of the most fertile and productive farmland in South Dakota and the United States. Forever. — Dale Harkness
Tagged with: south dakota, hyperion, sioux city, union county
