A lectern set up for President Barack Obama and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack at the McIntosh family farm to speak about the drought in Missouri Valley, Iowa on Aug. 13, 2012.

The Morse Reservoir north of Indianapolis has had to close the public beach for the remainder of the summer due to low water levels. Boats and docks sit in mud along the shoreline. Drought across Indiana and the Midwest has destroyed crops and left some communities with low levels of water. The 2012 drought has impacted the majority of the country with nearly 60% of the contiguous 48 states in some sort of drought by the end of July. The percentage of the country in severe or extreme drought has gone up too nearly 38%. With the Midwest heavily hit by the drought, food and fuel prices will be on the rise as this years crops in states like Illinois, Indiana, and Iowa will be far short of normal harvest rates. These photographs are from severely hit areas in southern Illinois and southern Indiana.

The record high temperatures in 2012 were accompanied by a historic drought, which ruined the corn crop

A six-month drought, China's worst in 50 years, has devastated crops and drinking water supplies.

The Texas drought, which dried up San Angelo's O.C. Fisher Lake, shown on Aug. 3, 2011, is one of the most severe on record for the state

Severely damaged corn stalks due to a widespread drought are seen at sunset on a farm near Oakland City, Indiana, Aug. 15, 2012.

A prolonged drought-and increasing demand-has left Lake Mead well below capacity.

"The Masters, 2005" After a three-year drought, Tiger Woods stormed back at Augusta in 2005, defeating American Chris DiMarco in a playoff round

In the worst of Victoria's drought early this year, water levels in the Hume Weir (right, in 1999) fell to 2%, fully exposing trees for the first time since it was flooded in the 1950s

Ravaged by war and drought, hundreds of thousands of Afghans are now facing starvation

SLIM PICKINGS: Due to drought, some 2.9 millions Zambians face starvation, but the government rejects genetically modified corn

Is the farming of thirsty maize crops in France making the drought there worse?

A boat and its anchor are stuck on the dry riverbed of the drought-stricken Danube river in Belgrade, Aug. 26, 2012. The western Balkans is in a heatwave that has seen temperatures top 104 degrees Fahrenheit, while Serbia also faces the worst drought in nearly 60 years.

This June, 28, 2012 photo shows hogs at a farm in Buckhart, Ill. U.S. agricultural economists say that a global shortage of bacon because of this year's drought will not pan out.

A lectern set up for President Barack Obama and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack at the McIntosh family farm to speak about the drought in Missouri Valley, Iowa, Aug. 13, 2012.

A migrant worker harvests watermelon from an irrigated farm field in a drought-stricken region of Indiana on July 18, 2012 near Vincennes, Ind.

This desalination plant in southern Spain will be shipped to Barcelona due to the ongoing drought affecting the north.

A rotting ear of corn sits on a struggling corn plant in a drought-stricken farm field on August 7, 2012 in Bondurant, Iowa

Pejar Dam, the water supply in the heart ofAustralia's sheep grazing country, sits nearly empty during a drought.

A farmer walks across his field in the drought-stricken Morigaon district in northeast India.

Crowds run toward a government tanker delivering fresh drinking water in New Delhi on July 6, 2012. The capital's drought is now virtually an annual summer occurrence.