While economies around the world pause in the face of the\ncoronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, farmers haven\u2019t stopped. Spring is planting\nseason for soybean and corn crops in America\u2019s heartland, and these seeds are a\ntop commodity shipped aboard flights from Argentina to the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although passenger flights aren\u2019t currently operating\nbetween the two countries, the seeds are traveling on one of American\u2019s\ncargo-only routes from Buenos Aires (EZE) to Miami (MIA). The flight on April\n16 broke American\u2019s all-time record for freight volume, moving 115,349 pounds\n(or 52,321 kilograms) of soybean seeds on a Boeing 777-300 \u2014 the equivalent\nweight to 76 cows or 20,900 chickens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The previous record for American\u2019s 777-300 was 103,384\npounds, set in 2014 on a flight from Los Angeles (LAX) to London (LHR).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The season for shipping soybean and corn seeds runs from\nMarch to May each year, with seeds bound for the Midwest. American has been\npart of this seasonal shipping cycle for more than a decade and has shipped\nmore than 290 tons of seeds in the past few weeks alone. Last week\u2019s record\nshipment arrived just as the U.S. government announced the Coronavirus Food\nAssistance Program, a $19 billion initiative aimed at supporting farmers and\nranchers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
American\u2019s role doesn\u2019t stop once the seeds are planted.\nAfter the northern hemisphere\u2019s harvest each year, seeds from the grown plants\nare shipped back to Argentina to wait for the next growing season in the warmth\nof the southern hemisphere. This proprietary process improves planting yield by\nup to 40%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe are proud to be a part of this important cycle that\nsupports local farming and provides vital food and fuel for the global economy.\nTransporting record-breaking volume in the process is just icing on the cake,\u201d\nsaid Lorena Sandoval, Director of Cargo Sales for Mexico, the Caribbean and\nLatin America. \u201cWith reduced flight schedules due to COVID-19, it\u2019s more\nimportant than ever to maximize every inch of available cargo space. We\u2019re here\nto support the world\u2019s food supply, no matter what we face.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
American has expanded its cargo-only schedule to 46 weekly\nflights, offering more than 6.5 million pounds of capacity to transport\ncritical goods each week between the United States and Europe, Asia and Latin\nAmerica. The airline will continue to add to the number of cargo-only routes in\nthe upcoming weeks, almost doubling its current weekly schedule. In addition to\nseeds, American continues to fly life-saving medical supplies and materials to\nthe United States, including personal protective equipment and pharmaceuticals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
While economies around the world pause in the face of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, farmers haven\u2019t stopped. Spring is planting season for soybean and corn crops in America\u2019s heartland, and these seeds are a top commodity shipped aboard flights from Argentina to the United States. Although passenger flights aren\u2019t currently operating between the two countries, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":15278,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[114],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Aircraft-Exterior-AA-Aircraft-Tail-Terminal-II-3.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15277"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15277\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15279,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15277\/revisions\/15279"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}