Feeding the World Through the Mississippi River, A Flawed Idea

The future of the Mississippi River lock and dam system is being debated in political circles after an initial report from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers multi-year study indicates upgrading may not be justified until at least 2020. The report concluded that expanding the navigation did not make sense even without considering the environmental costs of lock reconstruction.

U.S. grain exporting and commodity groups have reacted strongly to the Army Corps recommendation and are now lobbying Congress for a $1.2 billion appropriation, the "Export Facilitation Act," that would initiate the lock expansion studied by the Army Corps. The project would eventually cost $5 to $6 billion. Congress and the public are told that the U.S. grain exports will be critically needed in then next two decades to feed a hungry world and boost farmer income. Modernizing the lock and dam system will facilitate movement of grain for export out of the Midwest. But will this lesson food hunger? Will moving more grain down the Mississippi give farmers more income? The questions of who will benefit and who will pay deserve careful consideration.

About 17% of corn, 30% of soybeans and 43% of wheat produced in the U.S. this past year will be exported. Much of the corn and soybeans grown for both domestic and international markets is used for animal feed, while a large percentage of wheat grown for international markets is used for human consumption. Some developing countries receive only about 15% of the U.S. grain exports. And while the amount of the U.S. exports of corn, soybeans and what has nearly doubled since 1970, the money has not been seen by American farmers. Grain prices are at record lows. Dr. Dick Levins of the University of Minnesota examined the farm income in tow agricultural Minnesota counties. He found that in spite of dramatic increases in yields and farmer efficiency, the farm income was virtually unchanged in these counties over the past 25 years.

What is the role of grain exports to the U.S. economy and can the increase in grain exports, assuming markets exist, be used to justify the costs to the taxpayer of enlarging the Mississippi River locks? Will an increased ability to move grain from the Midwest to the Gulf measurably benefit individual farmers, or will the primary financial gains be made by the marketers and processors, both foreign and domestic? And when the costs of the lock and dam system expansion are assessed, to what degree will the environmental effects on the river and on the Gulf of Mexico be considered?

It seems to us that public awareness of this issue must be raised and the lock and dam project debated. U.S. agriculture and rural farming communities are in dire need of help. It will take vision and creative approaches to work ourselves back to a prosperous, environmentally friendly agriculture that favors the family farm. The Export Facilitation Act, largely a public subsidy to grain traders, lacks that vision. Increasing export of grains out of the Midwest is not going to be the answer."

Source: Dennis Keeney and Mark Muller, Des Moines Register, 7/7/99. 
Keeney is Director of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State Univerisity.