Inland Waterborne Transportation – An Industry Under Siege

Excerpts from the report: America's agricultural producers have always been dependent upon transportation. It is transportation that links the fields of the producer to the tables of the domestic and foreign consumers. Waterborne transportation is one component of the entire transportation system that provides service to a broad group of commodities/products. Farm commodities and farm inputs are extensive users of waterborne transportation. In a reciprocal way, the waterborne transportation industry depends upon agricultural and other resource movements for their economic livelihood. Grains are particularly dependent upon waterway services, as they access international markets, markets that take over 50 percent of the U.S. wheat production and an average of 22 percent of the coarse grain output. Producers of corn, soybeans, and white and soft wheats are particularly dependent upon foreign consumers and barge transportation. Because much of U.S. agricultural production is at interior locations far from domestic markets and ports that link our economy to the world, transportation is critical to the competitiveness of the U.S. economy.