Director of Agriculture Chinn authors a monthly column in Missouri Ruralist entitled Ag Matters. Below is this month’s column.
JEFFERSON CITY — One of Missouri agriculture’s unsung heroes is our river system. The best way to document the potential and opportunity the rivers bring is to look to a well-known river resident, Mark Twain. He wrote, “Along the Upper Mississippi, every hour brings something new. There are crowds of odd islands, bluffs, prairies, hills, woods and villages …”
As Missouri farmers and ranchers, we are blessed with this advantage, in addition to our rail and trucking options to get our products to market. The three transportation options working together create a competitive environment that brings down the cost of grain transportation overall.
It’s taken time to get where we are today. Dams were since built into the river system to provide electricity and management options for protection of agricultural land. Since the 1990s, we’ve seen a renaissance on both the Missouri and Mississippi rivers in terms of management.
The Missouri River is the longest river in North America. Before entering the Mississippi River in St. Louis, the Missouri River runs for about 2,400 miles and passes through 10 states. On its own, the Mississippi River is the nation’s second-longest river at more than 2,300 miles, and also pushes agricultural goods through 10 states.
Although it isn’t the longest river, the Mississippi does carry more water than any other American river and deposits into the critical Gulf of Mexico. Together, the Missouri and Mississippi rivers combine to form the world’s fourth-longest river.
To read Director Chinn’s full Ag Matters column, click here!
— Chris Chinn, Director of Missouri Department of Agriculture
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