News Travels Fast and Far

By Avery Davidson
Louisiana Farm Bureau Federation

“Invisible airwaves 
Crackle with life
Bright antennae bristle
With the energy”

-Rush The Spirit of Radio

A text message. Words sent by fingers, thumbs, electrons, radio waves, liquid crystal screens and light. One text message and we learned there was a near tragedy back home. And the means of avoiding that tragedy has ties back here to Japan. 

It started when LSU Ag Leadership Class XVI member Trey Wiggers scurried down the blue textured aisle of the 44 passenger bus we boarded only minutes before. The “it” is our learning of the near tragedy. 

Wiggers told me that a farm worker in Crowville, La. had gotten trapped in a grain bin; sucked into corn up to his armpits. These kinds of incidents usually do not end well. The average rescue time for a flowing grain entrapment is three hours. During that time, the pressure from the corn or soybeans in the bin can cut off circulation in the legs, cause clots and lead to death. 

As you’ve probably figured out because I wrote that this was a near tragedy the man trapped in the grain bin did survive. That is a blessing and might be considered the end of the story, but if you’re still reading, that means I’m still writing and there is more to this story.

That man survived for a few reasons. First and foremost, Franklin Parish is blessed with well trained first responders who answer the call and protect the men and women who live there. Second, several of those first responders participated in a grain bin rescue course organized by the Louisiana Farm Bureau Federation in Crowville a few years ago. Third, Consolidated Grain & Barge had a grain bin rescue kit that included a rescue tube those first responders used to save the man. 

Consolidated Grain & Barge is an international company owned in part by Zen-Noh Grain, a Japanese company. In fact, Wiggers and the rest of Class XVI toured the Zen-Noh facility in Kashima, Japan the same day as the entrapment. It’s a connection half a world away that directly touched the life of one Louisiana family. 

Franklin Parish first responders used the rescue tube to pull the man free within two hours of his entrapment; faster than the three hour average. Had those firefighters and law enforcement officers not received that training, had Consolidated Grain & Barge not had that rescue kit, this would be a tale of invisible airwaves carrying sad news, rather than the good news that a man from Wiggers’ hometown is safe with his family.