Source: BLOOMBERG, 2/16/17


Kirk Liefer is readying his soybeans for shipment down southern Illinois's Kaskaskia River. The Kaskaskia feeds into the Mississippi, which, to a great extent, feeds China: About one-quarter of the U.S. crop goes straight to the world's biggest food market, where it gets eaten by half the planet's pigs and provides cooking oil for a rapidly growing middle class.

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