12-12 FB Longshoremen

 Grains may have some trouble getting to where they need to go. We recently learned that, because of the nationwide drought, the Mississippi River is at record lows and may not be deep enough to carry barges filled with grain coming primarily out of the Midwest. I called up Travis Jones, the Executive Director of the Idaho Grain Commission, and asked him about this situation. He said that the Mississippi situation would  probably not have a major impact on growers throughout the Northwest but that another problem is looming large. “We are all connected and we have our problems in the Northwest because of Portland with their longshoreman labor strike issue with the grain handlers there. That is something that in Idaho we are keeping a close eye on. Generally, the labor folks are just trying to negotiate their contracts and their demands with grain handlers out of the Pacific Northwest that they work with. So it is a general dispute their on details and in the meantime until those details can be worked out we are worried about the backup of grain.