From a family-owned farm in Southeast Missouri to a dinner table in China, much of the locally grown grain will travel the world before reaching its final destination.
Bunge Grain is a leading exporter and domestic supplier of grain crops, with the largest storage capacity along the Mississippi River system. Mack Walford, of Bunge's Caruthersville location, explained what happens after farmers truck their fall harvests to Bunge's storage bins.
"Everything we ship out goes to barges on the Mississippi," he said. "The grain is loaded onto a barge at one of our river spouts. From (Caruthersville), it goes to New Orleans."
Once the grain arrives in New Orleans, it is loaded onto ships and sent around the globe.
Walford said Bunge's Caruthersville location commonly handles soybeans, corn and rice, which ends up in places such as China, Venezuela and Europe.
"Most of our soybeans go to China," Walford said. "China is one of the biggest soybean importers. Butler County rice goes to China and Venezuela and a lot of corn is shipped to China and Europe."
Sam Atwell, agronomist and rice specialist with the University of Missouri Dunklin County Extension office, said more than half the rice grown in America is shipped to other countries.
"In the U.S., we grow about 3-4 millions acres and consume about half of that," Atwell said, adding that another option for farmers is to deliver the grain directly to the buyer, if proximity allows. He said many times, this is the case with freshly harvested corn.
"The corn can go directly to the chicken processing places with a truck straight from the farm to the facility," said Atwell, specifically mentioning this is often the process local farmers use with Tyson Foods, Inc., in Dexter, Mo.
Walford said though it is not as common in the Southern Missouri region, Bunge also uses railcars to transport crops from one location to another.