The Corps, Budgets, and Food

On February 8th the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned that a drought in China's wheat belt could devastate harvests in June.  The FAO reported that rain and snowfalls were well below average in eight wheat-growing regions.  On February 12th, 2011 - - in The Wall Street Journal article (Muddy Waters for River Shippers) - - we were alerted to our own potential food issues.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is telling shippers it can no longer guarantee it will dredge parts of the lower Mississippi River to certain widths and depths.  This has potential implications for the cost of transporting goods on the river along with delays on the nation's busiest waterways.  In response, local river pilots have issued warnings to shippers to lighten their cargo loads so they can safely pass.  More than 60% of all agricultural products exported from the U.S. are shipped through the mouth of the Mississippi.

Late last year, the Corps warned shippers it might run short of funds for dredging by late spring.  The shift in dredging, which began in the past few weeks, came earlier than expected.  As quoted in the article:

"There is just a lot of uncertainty," said Ken Wells, coordinator for the Big River Coalition, a group of businesses that use the Mississippi.  "What do we do now?  And there is a lot of anger."

Weather extremes, inadequate funding for infrastructure improvements, and rising food consumption - - a Swiss cheese type problem where we are getting all the holes lined up.