By Jennifer Dorsett
Field Editor
Nearly every agricultural product or good travels on an American highway for at least a portion of its journey, according to a recent report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
The report shows the nation’s highways are the critical first and last mile connections in a long link of freight movement that includes railways, rivers and oceans.
That means a well-maintained highway infrastructure is critical to agriculture’s continued success.
“Agricultural freight movement is essential for moving goods from the farm to the consumer’s table,” USDA Undersecretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs Greg Ibach said. “Efficient transportation helps keep food prices low for consumers and enables the U.S. agricultural industry to compete in a global marketplace.”
Farmers and ranchers are the single largest user of freight services, comprising 17 percent of freight movements across all transportation modes in dollar value and 33 percent of all ton-miles. In 2017, 2.9 billion tons of agricultural products valued at $2.5 trillion were moved through the American freight network.
The study also found 80 percent of domestic agricultural commodities travel on 17 percent of U.S. highway mileage. These “high-volume domestic agriculture highways” (HDAH) are vital to U.S. farmers and ranchers and the various businesses associated with agriculture.
Through modeling and analysis, USDA and U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) researchers projected future roadway conditions and proposed projects to anticipate challenges and benefits for 17 HDAH corridors.
Several state departments of transportation, including Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), provided stakeholder information for the USDA report.
Despite being the fifth-largest agricultural-producing state in the nation and having more than 80,000 miles of roadways, which is more than any other state, Texas is crossed by only three of what USDA considers HDAH.
This could be due to Texas’ well-established Farm to Market (FM) road system, the largest secondary highway system in the U.S. Other states rely more heavily on state highways to transport goods and have not invested funds into paving or constructing roads in key agricultural areas.
In 2019, USDA published another report documenting the role of barge transportation for agricultural goods and commodities. That report is available here.
“Together, the two reports can be used to identify important infrastructure investments, drive updates to state freight plans and long-range transportation plans, inform policy discussions and help identify priorities for future research,” Ibach said.