The Mississippi River transports 60 percent of American corn and soybean exports to market. The massive barges that ply America’s waterways are more cost-effective than any other form of transportation, and also play a role in getting vital inputs to growers.

And yet, much of the infrastructure that makes this possible hasn’t been updated since the 1930’s… until now.

In this episode, we talk about a key win for the NCGA and other groups who have spent decades pushing Congress to act on this critical infrastructure problem.

Joining us are Jim Tarmann, the managing director with Illinois Corn Growers, and Tracy Zea, the president and CEO of the Waterways Council, which is an association dedicated to advocating for a modern national system of inland waterway infrastructure. 

We discuss how we got to this point, what it means for growers in the Midwest, and what comes next.