National Farmers Union President Roger Johnson called the ongoing rail delays in the upper Midwest ‘staggering’ and ‘unacceptable” this week. Johnson urged the federal government to press what he called the local railway monopoly for better results in a recent editorial. He says farm families are already feeling the pinch in areas such as North Dakota and if action doesn’t happen soon farmers could see more damage. He notes that in North Dakota, where shipping by rail is the only option for many, four different grain elevators indicate that their oldest orders are from early March and orders are up to 2,000 cars behind.
Johnson stated that the ethanol industry has also been frozen out of rail shipping. He stated “failure to bring ethanol to market will hurt consumers because of higher gasoline prices and will work against our efforts to offset imports of foreign oil.” The ethanol industry ships up to 61 percent of ethanol via rail. Johnson called on the federal Surface Transportation Board to take action.
Source: NAFB News Service