在由美国农业部主办的虚拟网络研讨会上，不同交通方式的互联互通以及对交通和宽带基础设施可靠性的需求成为美国农业产业持续竞争力的关键因素 圣路易斯农业企业俱乐部 2021 年 10 月 7 日。该活动为数十名国会工作人员提供了一个独特的机会，让他们可以直接听取交通、技术、农业综合企业和农业等关键领域的领导人关于基础设施投资对农业行业的重要性的看法。
超过100名与会者在线聚集 从美国农业海岸看基础设施，其中全面讨论了如何最好地实施基础设施计划，以使交通部门受益、加强创新和技术以及应对气候变化倡议。
Stephen Censky，首席执行官 美国大豆协会 (ASA)总部设在圣路易斯，通过提供一些与美国大豆运动相关的统计数据主持了会议并奠定了基础。他表示，大豆农民出口了该国生产的约 50% 作物。他说，平均而言，大豆在公路和桥梁上行驶前 15 英里，以便到达出口电梯，然后通过铁路或驳船在内陆水道上运输，然后运往各个港口和港口，强调整个运输网络对于这种单一 ag 产品移动的重要性。
“Agriculture is the largest user of the freight transportation system in the nation, representing 27% of all freight ton miles, and it’s expected to increase 23% over the next 20 years,” said Mary Lamie. “During peak season for the agribusiness industry, the efficient and reliable transportation of crops is critical to maximizing yield.”
Lamie 是 Bi-State Development 多式联运企业执行副总裁兼圣路易斯地区货运公路负责人，该公路通过公共和私人合作伙伴关系最大化多式联运基础设施融资机会，与所有运输方式、制造和物流公司密切合作，以及农业综合企业和交通部门。
Lamie 补充说，近一半的美国农作物和牲畜产自圣路易斯地区 500 英里半径范围内，该地区有四条州际公路服务于其在国家中心的战略位置，提供一天或更短的车程到中西部和南部地区。铁路行业还为该地区提供了一种更便宜的交通方式。
“我们拥有六家国家级或一级铁路承运商，可通往三个西海岸港口和两个东海岸港口，并从这些出口港口为世界各地的农业客户提供服务，”Lamie 说。 “这可能会让一些人感到惊讶，但我们位于该国内陆的位置，加上我们通往这些港口的铁路网络，为我们的农业产业提供了全球连接，为农民提供了优势。”
由于在密西西比河沿岸任何地方拥有最高水平的驳船处理农业和化肥产品的能力，圣路易斯地区也被国际公认为美国的农业海岸。拉米指出，驳船行业的头号基础设施项目实际上是一座历史悠久的铁路桥——招商桥，目前正在进行$2.22亿的更换，因为为了拥有有竞争力的驳船费率，他们需要有竞争力的铁路费率。她将其作为一个很好的例子，说明了多式联运和灵活性的重要性，以及拥有支持所有运输方式的基础设施如何成为在全球市场竞争的关键。
与会者还听取了全球和北美玉米总监 Jason Gertken 的发言 邦吉, 及其合资公司总裁 EGT有限责任公司. Bunge 总部位于圣路易斯地区，是一家拥有 200 年历史的农业综合企业和食品公司，是全球贸易的全球领导者之一，在全球范围内销售优质商品。该公司在 40 个国家开展业务，拥有 23,000 多名员工和 300 多个设施。 Gertken 将目光投向了从明尼阿波利斯到圣路易斯的密西西比河河段，该河段横跨 800 英里，海拔下降 404 英尺。数十座船闸和水坝，其中许多建于 1930 年代，帮助驳船在这段河流中航行，它们的成功运行对国家的供应链至关重要。
Gertken 说：“当其中一个下降时，谷物基本上没有其他途径可以顺流而下。” “因此，保持这些水闸和水坝的良好维护和可操作性可以显着降低供应链成本，从而显着降低最终用户成本，并有助于链条另一端的农民受益。”
Gertken 还强调了驳船运输产品的效率和碳密集度较低，并提供了在伊利诺伊州费尔蒙特市的 Bunge SCF 设施装载一艘驳船的例子。一艘驳船相当于大约 15 个由火车或 58 辆大型半挂卡车牵引的巨型料斗。
“When you’re sending a barge downriver, you’ve got one tugboat that’ll pull it downriver. And it usually has 15 barges in there — that’s about a little over two full unit trains of a hundred cars, or about 870 large semis,” Gertken said. “So, a barge is extremely efficient at moving grain over a long distance at a low fuel cost… and it has significantly less CO2 生产的。这也是对美国极为有利的事情”
在 BioSTL 项目副总裁 Ben Johnson 主持的对话中，美国致力于创新的优势也得到了强调，该对话通过利用该地区的一整套转型计划为圣路易斯的创新经济奠定了基础医学和植物科学强项。
“In America, we have pioneered creating new crops, creating new traits, higher yields, more efficiency. For us to continue to be a global leader, we need to continue to invest in the infrastructure that makes that possible,” said Johnson. He called attention to various funding mechanisms, specifically highlighting not only the importance of the current infrastructure bill, but also the U.S. Innovation and Competitiveness Act (USICA), a bipartisan bill that has moved out of the U.S. Senate and is being considered in the House. “USICA, a bipartisan act really aimed at cementing our competitiveness against China, would significantly scale the National Science Foundation and a lot of the investments it’s making in better fuels, better energy, a lot of which depends on new crop traits — biodiesel, soy diesel, et cetera,” Johnson said. “I think passage and funding of USICA as a way to really enhance the competitiveness we’ve all talked about, is critical.”
提高美国竞争力的必要性也是迪恩·坎贝尔 (Dean Campbell) 的首要考虑因素，他是家族农场 Agritech Acres, Inc. 的第五代所有者/经营者，该公司在伊利诺伊州库尔特维尔附近生产玉米、大豆和小麦，位于伊利诺伊州东南约 50 英里处。圣路易斯。
“That competitive advantage that we have with other countries — the mention of Brazil being a competitor with us — we’re losing that competitive advantage because they are building railroads, they are working on their waterway systems, they’re building roads,” said Campbell. “Our roads and infrastructure, that transportation infrastructure has been there — some of it well over a hundred years — and we need to maintain that at an increasing rate of what we have. There’s a lot going on, but we need more.”
Beyond the transportation infrastructure, Campbell also highlighted the need for open markets and investment in broadband, which can be lacking in rural areas. “It’s just frustrating that we can’t put in that infrastructure that’s usable out here. We have a tremendous amount of data to be looking at, to be transporting out for analysis.”
Adam Jones 是密苏里州林肯县和圣查尔斯县的家庭农场主，他种植大豆和小麦，并经营一家小型奶牛场，他对 Campbells 对农村社区缺乏宽带接入的担忧表示赞同。
“If these kids can’t have fast Internet, they’re not able to compete in today’s world and they’re going to move to the city, and we can start seeing some of these rural towns just disappear off the map because of today’s remote workplace environment,” said Jones. “And if they’re not able to work from their rural areas, then rural America’s at an extreme disadvantage.”
琼斯还提请注意需要在伊利诺伊州开罗北部的密西西比河上游改进防洪系统，该系统的防洪系统与密西西比河下游截然不同，近年来洪水泛滥，水位比以前高得多，洪水泛滥的速度也快得多。
“We really need to work towards a fair and equal protection system up here on the upper Mississippi,” said Jones. “As we continue to have these terrible floods, each one does not only impact farmers, but they’re blocking highways, they are going over rail and shutting down railroads, washing out railroads, taking out bridges and things like that. So, it’s not just an impact on the farmers, it’s a major impact on everybody in all these communities.”
琼斯还回应了 Gertken 关于需要投资伊利诺伊州奥尔顿北部老化船闸和水坝的想法，并举例说明驳船如何通过奥尔顿 1200 英尺船闸和水坝 25 的速度是 600 英尺船闸和水坝的两倍26、驳船拖曳的地方必须分成两半才能移动通过，然后再放回一起。
在会议的问答部分，小组成员被问及他们如何看待基础设施投资促进创新和应对气候挑战，Johnson 发表了看法。
“Investments in ag innovation are critical to not only addressing our competitiveness in the food market, but addressing our global climate challenges as well. Those investments range from basic science research at the Department of Energy and USDA and NSF, to investments in the infrastructure that make that happen — labs and greenhouses to test the products,” said Johnson. “There are gaps in turning these ideas into new companies, so investments that help de-risk the technology so the private market can really take them through to consumers, those are really critical investments.”
Gertken added that a great example would be the renewable fuel standards that was enacted a number of years ago that basically generated a whole industry that now uses a third of the U.S. corn crop. “That caused investments in the rail lines and investments in all the little towns; there’s over 120 ethanol plants across the U.S. now,” Gertken said, adding that we’re now seeing in the biodiesel sector what we saw in the ethanol sector 10 years ago. “There’s a lot of growth potential. Bunge is making active investments to be part of that and be part of the renewable diesel and the bio diesel part of the world. It’s massively growing and we foresee that happening over the next handful of years.”
Looking to the future with the congestion currently plaguing the West Coast ports in mind, Lamie said she hoped to be back with the panelists in a few years adding to the dialogue about cleaner and ever more efficient ways of moving freight by highlighting advancements that will have been made in the Container-On-Vessel initiative that would have patented new vessels transporting anywhere from 1,800 to 2,000 containers at a time from the St. Louis region to the Gulf of Mexico. “It’s an alternative that would support the supply chain. And I think that’s one of the innovative things that we need to do as a nation, is to think differently on how we can better compete.”