Posted By Cindy January 8, 2008
There’s now more time to get your name in for one of five $1,000 one-year scholarships.
The deadline for NCGA’s Academic Excellence in Agriculture Scholarship Program, sponsored by BASF, has been extended to February 1. NCGA says the deadline was extended at the request of college financial aid administrators.
Applicants must be entering at least their second undergraduate year, pursuing a degree in an agriculture-related field, and they or a parent or legal guardian must be an NCGA member. Entries must be postmarked Friday, Feb. 1, at the latest. Complete rules are in the application packet at www.ncga.com/scholarship, and winners will be notified in February and recognized at the Commodity Classic in Nashville.
Posted By Cindy January 7, 2008
Missouri Governor Matt Blunt has unveiled a plan to provide $2 million in tax incentives to fuel retailers who install E-85 ethanol pumps.
According to a press release from the governor’s office, there are only 92 gas stations capable of pumping E-85 out of the more than 4,300 stations in the state. These tax credits would help offset the cost of installing or modifying pumps and tanks to dispense E-85, estimated to cost between $3,000 and $40,000.
The proposal also calls for a $1,500 tax break for those who buy a flex-fuel vehicle capable of operating on blends of fuel containing as much as E-85. In addition, individuals who buy E-85 could get a $500 a year tax break.
“The Missouri Corn Growers Association applauds Governor Matt Blunt’s ongoing commitment to building E85 infrastructure throughout the state,” says Ethan Taylor, E85 Associate Director for MCGA. “In addition to his proposal for an increase in E85 pumps, Governor Blunt takes the next step by incentivizing consumers to purchase hybrid vehicles and E85 fuel. Thanks to his vision, Missouri continues to be a leader in the realm of renewable fuels.”
The measure would have to get lawmakers’ approval, and Blunt plans to make it a priority for the coming legislative session that begins this week.
Posted By Chuck January 4, 2008
People attending the Rose Bowl learned a little bit about corn and ethanol thanks to the Illinois Corn Growers. Too bad the local team didn’t win. This graphic is an example of the messages they used for this promotional opportunity.
The game on the field may not have yielded the desired results that the University of Illinois football program had hoped for on Tuesday, but Illinois did make a significant impact. It was in fact the Illinois Corn Marketing Board (ICMB) that provided a significant “win” for the State of Illinois’ agri-business community, at the prestigious Rose Bowl in Pasadena.
The ICMB used the national stage to deliver a few poignant messages. First, Illinois farmers want to help curb the nation’s dependence on foreign oil through the use of ethanol. Secondly, the nation can rest assured that farmers have the capacity to accomplish this, while still providing more than the necessary amount of corn as a food source.
With the University of Illinois making an appearance in the Rose Bowl for the first time since 1984, the ICMB partnered with InStadium, Inc., a sports media and marketing company, to harness the national exposure of the more than 93,000 attendees. All of this was done in an effort to increase the awareness of the uses and implications of ethanol, which is widely regarded as an environmentally friendly fuel alternative.
Posted By Cindy January 3, 2008
With crude oil touching triple-digits again on Thursday, I have noticed at least a few articles mentioning the fact that higher oil prices mean higher prices for everything else, including … food.
Yes, indeed. The Dallas Morning News reports that “Already high oil costs are inflating the price of fuel and, in turn, the price of most consumer goods. Nearly everything we buy is either made of petroleum-based plastic, like toys, or wrapped in plastic, like lettuce.”
The Boston Globe quotes Andy Lipow, president of Houston-based Lipow Oil Associates LLC as saying “Higher gasoline and heating oil prices are going to cut into consumer spending, going to prompt increases in inflation because of the goods and services affected by energy, and we’ll see higher food prices.”
Even before this week’s triple-digit milestone was reached, the Associated Press reported last week that higher oil prices in 2007 “jacked up the cost of travel, clothing, beauty products and milk.”
So, the question is, when higher gas prices were in the news every other month in 2007, why was the blame for higher food prices placed on ethanol?
Posted By Cindy January 3, 2008
Oil hit $100 a barrel this week for the first time, however briefly, foreshadowing another year of higher gas prices.
That’s the bad news. The good news is that a cost-effective alternative fuel is already commercially availably to help reduce our dependence on foreign oil.
Brian Jennings with the American Coalition for Ethanol says, “For the sake of the nation’s economic health, our New Year’s resolution must be to put the brakes on this costly and risky reliance on oil and accelerate our use of domestically produced ethanol.”
ACE outlines it like this:
The bad news of high oil prices:
The U.S. imports around 12 million barrels of oil per day, resulting in more than $1 billion per day being shipped to foreign oil suppliers.
Gas prices have more than doubled since 2002, costing Americans nearly $300 billion annually.
In spite of the high oil prices, U.S. consumption of gasoline has continued to increase by about 2% annually.
High energy prices directly impact the cost of consumer goods that are dependent upon energy for processing, packaging, and transportation.
As of 2005, petroleum imports accounted for 31% of the U.S. trade deficit, a cost of $220 billion. The Department of Commerce estimates that every $1 billion of trade deficit costs the nation 19,100 jobs.
The good news of ethanol availability:
The use of 36 billion gallons of ethanol, as scheduled in the new RFS, will be enough to drive America’s transportation sector without any oil for at least two full months each year.
Today more than 50% of America’s gasoline contains ethanol.
While no new gasoline refineries have been built in the last 30 years, more than 130 ethanol production facilities have come online and more than 70 new facilities are under construction – providing critical supplies of cost-effective renewable fuel for consumers.
For every barrel of ethanol produced, 1.2 barrels of petroleum is displaced at the refinery.
The combination of reduced farm program costs and increased income tax revenues results in a net gain to the U.S. Treasury of $1.30 per gallon of ethanol produced.
No joke.
Posted By Cindy January 3, 2008
There’s no doubt that getting a college education is getting more expensive by the day, and there’s also no doubt that agriculture continues to need highly educated professionals for the future. But, help is available.
The National Corn Growers Association has joined forces with chemical company BASF to award college scholarships to deserving undergraduate and graduate students pursuing a degree in an agriculture-related field.
The NCGA Academic Excellence in Agriculture Scholarship Program is awarding five $1,000 one-year scholarships to members or dependents of a member of the National Corn Growers Association enrolled in an agriculture, agribusiness, or ag vocation program at an accredited junior college, college or university.
The deadline is coming up January 11, so if you are interested download an application on-line here and get it submitted.
Posted By Cindy January 3, 2008
Fourteen years after the North American Free Trade Agreement was signed it has been fully implemented. As of Jan. 1, the final trade restrictions on U.S. exports of corn, dry edible beans, dry milk and high fructose corn syrup were removed under the agreement. This has sparked protests by farmers in Mexico.
Now, is it just me, or does this not make any sense? Just a few months ago, there were protests in Mexico over the price of tortillas increasing because of higher corn prices, right? Now, protesters say the “free entry of relatively cheap U.S. corn would devastate rural Mexico,” according to an LA Times story.
The article goes on to says that about 100 Mexican farmers partially blocked the border crossing between El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juarez, carrying signs that read “Without Corn There Is No Country.”
Here’s the kicker. “Mexico’s tortilla producer association said the final implementation of the treaty would reduce the number of Mexican corn producers and could lead to a 20% to 30% increase in the price of tortillas. It gave no details.”
Huh? Corn from the US is suddenly “relatively cheap” and now that it can be exported to Mexico without restrictions it will result in HIGHER tortilla prices. It gets even more confusing.
Mexican imports of U.S. corn have risen from less than 1 million metric tons in 1993 to 9.9 million metric tons in the 2006-07 marketing year that ended in July, according to statistics from the U.S. Agriculture Department.
The majority of the imports are of yellow corn, which is used to feed livestock and to make corn syrup. There are about 1.5 million corn farmers in Mexico and most grow white corn, which is used to make tortillas.
NAFTA critics say Mexican farmers cannot compete with their American counterparts because the government subsidies they receive are paltry compared with those given to U.S. farmers.
So, US corn exports to Mexico are increasing, but it’s not the type of corn used to make tortillas, which Mexican farmers tend to grow. But, they can’t compete with US corn farmers. I don’t get it.
