Posted: 05.19.2010

 A late snowstorm was a disaster for Wisconsin's ginseng growers.

Joe Heil is president of the Ginseng Board of Wisconsin. Heil
told Wisconsin Public Radio the damage from a May 7 storm was much
higher than the $15 million the crop generates in annual sales. And
he says some farmers may go out of business without federal
disaster aid.

America is third in world ginseng production behind Canada and
China. Wisconsin produces 95 percent of the U.S. crop, with almost
all of it grown in Marathon County.

Across the county, acre after acre of ginseng fields and their
characteristic tents are in disarray, with poles bent over and
tarps down because of the heavy wet snow and hard freeze.
Heil says without help, Wisconsin could lose its place in the
world ginseng market

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