The Great Lakes Seaway Partnership today launched the second installment of American Anchor, a series of short films highlighting key transportation supply chains and illustrating the global and regional impacts of Great Lakes Seaway shipping.

The second American Anchor short film tells the tale of the agricultural supply chain, beginning at farms across the Midwest. After the harvest, agricultural commodities, like grain and soy, make their way to a Great Lakes port. There, the commodities are loaded on a freighter and moved through the largest fresh water lakes in the world. The vessel then makes its way through the St. Lawrence Seaway, a system of locks, canals, and channels in Canada and the United States that allows oceangoing vessels to travel from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes of North America and visa versa. Next, the cargo traverses the Atlantic Ocean until it reaches its port of call. Then, the exported agricultural products are used to produce everything from bread, pasta, soymilk, and vegetable oil to beer, ethanol, and animal feed.

Each year, waterborne transportation in the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence region is responsible for supporting over 237,000 jobs and $35 billion in economic activity by moving necessary cargos that support the agriculture, construction, automotive and energy industries. The American Anchor series artfully captures the impact of Great Lakes shipping, the Saint Lawrence Seaway, Great Lakes ports, foreign and domestic vessels, farmers, manufacturers, labor and the relationship of each to their local and global communities.

“Shipping through the Seaway to the rest of the world helps our U.S. farmers compete effectively in a global market,” said Craig Middlebrook, Deputy Administrator of the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation. “Grain products shipped over the Seaway in international, ocean-going vessels are used to produce products around the world.”

American Anchor is now available to watch online. Join the conversation through The Great Lakes Seaway Partnership’s social channels on Twitter Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin.

About the Great Lakes Seaway Partnership

The Great Lakes Seaway Partnership is a coalition of leading US and Canadian maritime organizations working to enhance public understanding of the benefits of commercial shipping in the Great Lakes Seaway region of North America. The organization manages an education-focused communications program, sponsors research and works closely with media, policy makers, community groups, allied industries, environmental stakeholders and the general public to highlight the positive attributes of marine transportation.

The Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway System is a marine highway that extends 2,300 miles from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes. Approximately 143.5 million metric tons of cargo is moved across the System on an annual basis, supporting more than 237,868 jobs and $35 billion in economic activity.

For more information, please visit http://www.greatlakesseaway.org.

###