Grain prices for some key commodities hit all-time lows, creating another major farm crisis. Things are especially rough in the Red River Valley, this port's primary production area. But unlike the 1980s, no one makes movies or popular songs about the farmers' plight these days, and Congress, hung up by presidential hangups, diddles. The big railroads, after becoming governments unto themselves in the Age of Deregulation, cannot get their act together. Many grain truckers, forced out of business by the same railroads prior to the mergercide, wonder if they got out too soon.
Grain piles up alongside country elevators in some parts of the nation.
As I write this, our exports are running well ahead of last year's. One thing we always seem to overlook is that even a flat world grain market is still a very big world grain market. Six billion people and their livestock consume tremendous amounts of bread, pasta, cereal, feedstuffs and other grain products. But my suggestion is not to dwell on it. The grain trade will drive you nuts because just when you think you have an answer, somebody changes the question.