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Trade, transportation, and infrastructure are top priorities for NGFA

Trade, transportation, and infrastructure are top priorities for the National Grain and Feed Association. These priorities were outlined during NGFA’s Country Elevator Conference Monday in Indianapolis.

President and CEO Randy Gordon says NGFA members are closely watching the US Mexico Canada Agreement.  

“We need to get USMCA ratified by the House and by Congress- we need that certainty in trade to provide some predictability for agriculture moving forward and to sustain our farm economy,” he says. “Every farmer I’ve talked with wants their money coming from the marketplace not from the government and we certainly echo that.”

He tells Brownfield transportation in the railways need to be addressed. He says the Surface Transportation Board has proposals that NGFA is supportive of that would provide a more streamline way for shippers to challenge unreasonable railway rates.

“Just having access to be able to challenge a railway we think would help discipline the railroad to a degree because they know a shipper could bring a case,” he says.

Gordon says the inland waterway system remains critical to the industry.

“And so we’d like to see some more investment to modernize those locks and dams that are over 50 years old and well past their lifespan and are increasingly breaking down through unplanned stoppages because they are so deteriorated,” he says

More than 600 country elevator managers, merchants, and other employees attended the 48^th annual Country Elevator Conference. Other topics covered included the market outlook, mental health in rural America, and technological innovation in the industry.

Audio: Randy Gordon, National Grain and Feed Association