Posted By Cindy January 30, 2008
The Ethanol Promotion and Information Council (EPIC) has announced a new contest with a $10,000 cash prize and the chance for international exposure for a budding television commercial producer.
EPIC’s “Fuel the Change” video contest is looking for “a 27 second video promoting the advantages of ethanol. How is ethanol a part of your life? How do you see ethanol making a difference in the environment? Or, describe your burning desire to drive Americans to use ethanol.” While it is ideally about consumers educating other consumers, nothing in the contest rules prohibits farmers from entering, as long as they are not working for, or related to employees of, EPIC or its affiliated members and agencies.
The grand prize is $10,000 and the opportunity to have the video aired during ABC-TV coverage of the 2008 Indianapolis 500 on May 25. There are also a number of other prizes up for grabs, including a $5,000 “People’s Choice” and three $1,250 “Sponsor’s Choice” awards.
All the info is on the official “Fuel the Change” website www.fuelthechange.com.
Posted By Ken January 30, 2008
It’s great to see the Wall Street Journal run an article that puts the future of corn and ethanol in a good light. Sure, a few typical and unnecessary jabs were taken, but this column, based on an interview with a Syngenta exec, covers the bases well. The future of ag is bright, especially when you consider the global economy and the impact of technology.
The key snippet here is the final sentence: “Bottom line: It’s a good time to be an ag-science company, and even a better time to be a farmer.”
Posted By Cindy January 28, 2008
In the spirit of “teach a man to fish,” the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced Friday that it would greatly increase agricultural grants designed to reduce hunger and poverty in Africa and South Asia.
“If we are serious about ending extreme hunger and poverty around the world, we must be serious about transforming agriculture for small farmers,” Bill Gates, co-chairman of the foundation, said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
The new funds include grants to help improve soil quality and yields, assist research on hardier rice strains, provide better irrigation methods to small farmers and help develop superior coffee beans for export.
Gates said he regretted that support for agriculture in the developing world had been relatively neglected by his foundation but noted that it is a critical tool to drive development in rural areas.
It’s refreshing to see that kind of talk and action. All too often American do-gooders tend to take the “give a man a fish” approach and feed him for just a day. This kind of financial support has the potential to really make a difference by giving a hand up instead of just a hand out.
Posted By Cindy January 27, 2008
The newly launched blog of the Clean Fuels Development Coalition has a great commentary about cellulosic vs. corn-based ethanol going “hand-in-hand into the winner’s circle.”
CFDC Director of Program Development Burl Haigwood points out that “the excitement over cellulosic ethanol is still about the success and potential of ethanol, which in any other form of production, is still ethanol.”
Corn-based ethanol brought cellulosic technology to the alternative fuels dance and we should all be doing the two step – first step ethanol, second step cellulose. Cellulosic ethanol will answer many of the concerns of critics over ethanol’s ability to significantly and sustainably become an important component of our nation’s energy strategy. We should all move forward with enthusiasm for corn-based ethanol, improvements in the process technology, the improved methods of growing of corn and other energy crops, and continue to develop cellulosic ethanol. Throwing out the corn-based ethanol before it reaches its full potential (e.g., cellulosic) is like turning off the old black and white TV before seeing HDTV. So stay tuned in to see more developments in ethanol and ethanol feedstocks.
Great stuff – read it all here.
Posted By Ken January 24, 2008
Remember this gem of wisdom from Lester Brown?
“Rising food prices will be the first major economic indicate that the world economy is on an environmentally unsustainable path…The deterioration of the earth’s ecosystems is slowing growth in world food production during the nineties and ushering in an era of scarcity.”
No, this statement was not made by Brown at Thursday morning’s press conference in which he predicted yet another world food crisis. It was made more than 10 years ago in Brown’s 1997 “State of the World” report. Since then, corn production in the United States increased from 9.2 billion bushels to 13.1 billion bushels a decade later.
As demonstrated by this errant prediction and many, many others dating back to the early 1970s, the doomsday statements made by Brown this morning are nothing new. Somehow, for the past 40 years, Brown has managed to make a comfortable living predicting world food crises. And for some reason, reporters continue to show up to his “press conferences.”
Fact is, while Brown is quick to whine about rising food prices, he does not note that they are rising at a rate only 0.7 percent higher than the overall rate of inflation and that energy prices are going through the roof — the real culprit in increased food costs.
The NCGA gets to the truth of the matter here.
And you can buy Brown’s State of the World report on Amazon for prices starting at $0.01.
Posted By Cindy January 24, 2008
A headline in Barron’s this week says “Soybeans Bow to King Corn,” and notes that because of the energy bill’s increase in ethanol “it now looks as though the oilseed may spend another year riding in the back seat” when it comes to acreage.
Corn and soybeans are like two sides of the same coin – yin and yang, as it were. Like love and marriage, as the old song says, you can’t have one without the other. Farmers grow both and competition between the two is more important to the futures markets than to the farmers. Well, also to the commodity groups – since soybean has a mandatory national checkoff while corn subsists on state level checkoffs that are sometimes voluntary.
That’s why it was inevitable that someday the twain should meet when the corn and soybean grower groups finally decided a few years ago to join forces and have one single annual meeting instead of two and the “Commodity Classic” was born. Last year, wheat was added to the mix and now there are three amigos.
Classic is coming up soon – February 28 through March 1 in Nashville. Make plans to attend if you haven’t already and celebrate the good times. Registration and other information is available on-line here.
Posted By Cindy January 23, 2008
It’s not every day that the mayor of the nation’s biggest metropolitan area uses a farming analogy to make a point, but that’s what New York’s Michael Bloomberg did today in a speech to the U.S. Conference of Mayors. While accepting the National Mayoral Leadership Award for his efforts to combat climate change, Bloomberg launched into a tirade against Congress and the federal government that slammed agriculture in the process.
AP reports the “metropolitan mayor used a farming analogy to heap scorn on the current crop of Washington leaders.”
“They spent most of this past decade when things were good running up bills with reckless abandon, and when the economy started heading for the ditch, the special interest giveaways got even bigger. I think they ate the seed corn without worrying about the next year’s crop. Here we are, the seed corn is gone, and all we’ve got is a barn full of IOU’s,” he said.
Ok, so the analogy sort of works (if anyone actually ATE seed corn), but what does the son of Jewish immigrants who grew up in Boston and became a multi-billionaire financial tycoon know about seed corn in the first place? And its not like when Jesus spoke to people using farming parables so they could relate – his audience was a bunch of fellow metropolitan mayors who also probably don’t know seed corn from popcorn.
The comment makes a bit more sense when you read the entire text of Bloomberg’s remarks, which transition from seed corn to attacking the farm and energy bills:
“We all know that spending decisions in Washington are driven by whatever will attract votes and campaign cash. You can see it in the farm bill: 10 percent of farms – the large agribusinesses – captured 75 percent of the benefits, while the small family farmer got a few crumbs. You can see it in the energy bill, which was also a gift to agribusiness – and the rest of us are paying higher food prices as a result.”
Perhaps Mayor Bloomberg would like to see how the people of New York City would fare trying to grow their own food and he could learn first hand what it would be like when the seed corn was gone and the barn was empty.
Posted By Cindy January 20, 2008
While the French were busy banning the production of biotech corn last week, their neighbors to the south were importing more US corn than they have in almost a decade.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foreign and Agricultural Service reports that the United States sold 2.5 million bushels of corn for shipment to Spain the week ending January 11 – the first of this magnitude to Spain since 1998-99, according to U.S. Grains Council officials who say biotechnology has been the primary trade barrier causing Spain not to seek U.S. corn.
“Because the tight supply of feed grains has feed millers and producers in a severe price squeeze, the timing is right to try and educate the European Union’s grain industry about biotechnology and elicit their support in addressing policy,” said Dale Artho, U.S. Grains Council chairman. “They were especially receptive to the idea of relaxing the EU GMO (genetically modified organisms) policies for U.S. corn. We discussed how corn with plant technology attributes could be utilized in their milling process for feed export markets and how that would reduce the pressure on their domestic markets.”
Artho said Spain’s purchase of U.S. corn is a good sign that the Council’s education efforts are working and gives U.S. producers reason to be optimistic about the potential to export genetically enhanced feed grains to Europe.
Posted By Cindy January 18, 2008
The Indiana Corn Growers Association is helping to promote biofuels awareness in their state in a number of ways.
One is a billboard and radio campaign in major Indiana cities aimed at informing consumers that all automakers approve the use of 10 percent ethanol-enriched fuel. “Consumer feed back is showing that consumers still don’t believe ethanol is good for their cars, said Mark Walters, biofuels director for Indiana Corn and Soybean. “So, we are using this first phase to show that automakers do approve ethanol and you can fill your car up with ethanol.”
As this campaign progresses, they will urge consumers to ask retailers if they are selling ethanol and make a push for E85 and flex-fuel vehicles. The Indiana Corn Growers have partnered with the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council (EPIC) on the campaign.
Indiana Corn is also working to gain support for a Biofuels special recognition license plate to be made available through the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles.
The Biofuels license plate will promote both ethanol and soy biodiesel as Indiana-grown renewable fuels helping to move the state forward and will cost drivers between $25 and $40.
Posted By Cindy January 17, 2008
A poll done by Reuters at the 89th annual American Farm Bureau Federation convention this week found that over 70 percent of farmers surveyed say ethanol has helped boost their bottom line.
The poll also showed that 90 percent of farmers said they would not reduce their corn plantings this year because of an increased supply of ethanol in the Midwest.
“You look at feed grain demand and worldwide production levels they’re going to plant because the demand is there for uses besides ethanol,” said American Farm Bureau Federation President Bob Stallman.
The 686 farmers sampled were responding voluntarily from about 5,000 in attendance at the Farm Bureau’s annual meeting in New Orleans.
