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Missouri’s Ag Coast Has Ingredients to Feed the World

  • December 05, 2019

Missouri’s agriculture industry contributes $33 billion in GDP to Missouri’s economy, and generates $88 billion in sales and more than 378,000 jobs across the state. In fact, so much agricultural product is shipped via river barge from the St. Louis region that a 15-mile section of the Mississippi is becoming known as the “Ag Coast” of America.

Located in the heartland of America, the Ag Coast region delivers the highest level of grain barge handling capacity anywhere along the “mighty Mississippi.” The St. Louis Regional Freightway, 39 North agtech innovation district, and the World Trade Center St. Louis have partnered to create an ecosystem through leadership in research, production and transportation, that gives Missouri all the ingredients needed to feed the world.

With the world population expected to grow by 25% and exceed 10 billion people in the next 30 years, the need for efficient production and movement of food is more critical than ever. Meeting that need has become a unifying factor for the St. Louis Regional Freightway, 39 North, and the World Trade Center St. Louis. The unified effort aims to increase global agriculture production by cultivating an ecosystem within Missouri’s Ag Coast that encompasses the region’s unmatched concentrations of talent, capital, facilities, agtech organizations and producers.

Missouri is well-situated to meet these needs. As the global leader in agtech and the gateway to the future of advanced farming, Missouri’s agtech industry is leading the way with innovative technology and research that is transforming agriculture. Missouri’s crop and livestock diversity, abundant water supply and rich soil provide a solid, statewide, foundation for agtech companies to grow and succeed.

Missouri is proud to be home to leading agtech organizations, including the Danforth Plant Science Center, Bayer CropScience, the Missouri Botanical Garden, Yield Lab, DuPont, BASF, Bunge, KWS, and many more. Missouri is also home to the headquarters of Rabo Agrifinance, providing extensive financing and insurance options for U.S. farmers, ranchers, and agribusinesses. Central States Commodities, a full-service commodities brokerage and trading desk focused on agriculture, is also located in Missouri.

These companies are leading the way in investment and innovation in advanced farming. Big data, smart farming, input optimization, precision ag, prescription ag, biologicals, breeding, green chemistry, green pharmaceuticals – it’s all growing right here.

But it’s not just technology that makes Missouri the global agtech leader, it’s also our world-class talent. Universities across the state offer advanced plant science degrees and St. Louis, Missouri, has the highest concentration of plant science PhD’s in the world.

When you add it all up, these strengths position Missouri’s Ag Coast as a global leader in food production and distribution, and organizations like the St. Louis Regional Freightway, 39 North St. Louis, and World Trade Center St. Louis are leveraging that leadership to meet the growing food demands of the world.

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