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Corn Growers' Testimony Shows How Antiquated River Infrastructure Hurts
U.S. Exports
(5-23-01)
NCGA
testified on Capitol Hill today that the antiquated locks and dams on
the Upper Mississippi and Illinois Rivers severely compromise producers'
ability to ship commodities when markets demand product.
Tim
Burrack, a member of NCGA's Production & Stewardship Action Team
and a farmer in Arlington, Iowa, told the Water Resources and Environment
Subcommittee that growing congestion due to outdated river infrastructure
hinders "our ability to meet global demand, which ultimately costs
us markets and drives down grain prices."
Overseas markets
are key customers for corn growers and other grain producers. Burrack
testified that corn producers "see global corn and oilseed demand
is increasing, yet U.S. exports are growing at a much slower rate."
The reason is, Burrack stated, that U.S. corn exports historically relied
on a superior transportation network that kept the price of corn competitive
with overseas producers.
Burrack concluded
that our "overseas competitors have found the fortitude to invest
in their transportation systems and these investments are paying off.
Congestion at the locks on the Upper Mississippi and Illinois Rivers
exists. It is real and every year it gets worse. This growing inefficiency
chokes our ability to meet growing global demand, it robs America of
foreign trade, it costs Americans jobs, it drives up the cost of energy
in the Midwest and costs farmers like me millions of dollars in lost
crop revenue. And the worst part, it will only continue to magnify until
we fix it, or are completely irrelevant in global agriculture markets."
View the testimony
here.
Last
reviewed May 23, 2001
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