Brenan Kronenberg #1

On my first day of the my internship, I learned exactly what the company Russell Marine Group does. They are a third party company who supervise the international trade of grains, rice, soy beans, and other crops that are traded by water. The US is the world's top provider of these types of crops, and roughly half of them are traded internationally. When companies overseas wish to buy these products, they hire RMG to supervise its shipment. The company coordinates the multistep process of getting the product down the Mississippi River by many barges, and transferring it to a cargo ship. Also the company collects and tests samples of all of their products before shipment, to ensure that the buyer is getting precisely what they purchased. The testing of the crops is an integral part of shipment because the vast majority of these goods go towards feeding animals, which feed humans, and if the animals are eating potentially unhealthy food, then it will affect food supplies and health of people around the world.