GLICKMAN VISITS SITE OF KANSAS GRAIN ELEVATOR EXPLOSION 
                                           Release No. 0248.98 

                                    Tom Amontree (202) 720-4623
                                             tamontree@usda.gov
                                   Laura Trivers (202) 720-4623
                                         laura.trivers@usda.gov


GLICKMAN VISITS SITE OF KANSAS GRAIN ELEVATOR EXPLOSION

     WICHITA, Kansas, June 15, 1998-- U.S. Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman
visited the site of the June 8 grain elevator explosion near Wichita, Kansas
today and met with state agriculture leaders and industry officials to outline
measures he will take to help minimize the economic effect of the explosion on
the grain farmers of Kansas. 

     Glickman said that in the wake of the explosion, farmers were concerned 
about how the loss of the elevator's storage capacity might affect their
ability to move and store the wheat crop that is about to be harvested in
Kansas, as well as other crops scheduled for the fall harvest.

     The Department of Agriculture is working with the Kansas Department of
Agriculture to locate and secure additional storage space," Glickman said. 
"We did a quick survey of available storage in the region, and it looks like
there is adequate space to handle the wheat harvest.  However, down the road,
there is the potential for tight storage conditions as the fall crops are
harvested.  We will take all actions in our power to alleviate storage
problems and to ease potential transportation congestion."

     The Department of Agriculture is taking the following actions:

     1) Distress loans from USDA's Farm Service Agency are available to
farmers who must store grain on the ground or in temporary farm facilities due
to lack of buyers with commercial storage space at harvest.  These loans may
reduce the immediate need for farmers to sell new crop wheat to country or
terminal grain elevators during harvest.

     2) USDA will allow warehouses and grain elevators to store commodities
in temporary or emergency space that normally would not qualify under USDA
licensing and storage requirements.  This will increase the storage capacity
in existing storage facilities for new crop harvests.

     3) USDA will suspend its requirements that federally or state licensed
warehouses in Kansas have grain storage agreements with the Agriculture
Department to store grain pledged as collateral for marketing assistance
loans.  This will increase the storage capacity for farmers who want these
loans.
     4) USDA will consider requests by elevators that are either federally
licensed or that are storing USDA-owned or loan commodities to forward grain
to other locations.

     The DeBruce Wichita grain elevator was storing about 7 million bushels
of grain at the time of the explosion.  Of this, 2.9 million bushels were
committed to the Food Security Commodity Reserve.  USDA will continue to
monitor the situation at the DeBruce facility and will examine the quantity
and quality of the wheat on behalf of all depositors.

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