Members of the United Soybean Board are on a fact-finding mission looking at soybean transportation in other parts of the world. Vanessa Kummer, communications chair for the Board, says the delegation this week toured the Panama Canal, which is about to undergo a major expansion.

"I really do think it is going to make the Panama Canal much more efficient; having that third lane for getting ships through," Kummer said. "Now the next thing we need to find out is will our port cities be able to handle the ships that will be able to go through this newly expanded lane, because they will be taking bigger ships than the panamax vessels now."

Kummer says the U.S. grain transportation infrastructure also needs modernization.

"Between our waterways and our locks and dams and the ports in the U.S., our infrastructure definitely needs to be studied as far as what's the most important, what's the priorities for getting things done," Kummer said. "We see other countries making a much larger investment in their infrastructure right now and obviously we need to in the U.S. also."

The Soybean Board delegation traveled from Panama on to Brazil.