During a House Agriculture Subcommittee hearing today on the future of next generation biofuels, full committee chairman Collin Peterson (D-MN) challenged a comment made in the opening statement of USDA Under Secretary Dr. Rajiv Shah.
While praising the agriculture industry for meeting the demand for corn-based ethanol, Dr. Shah stated that “very importantly — increased corn acreage supported greater ethanol output.”
Not so, said Chairman Peterson. “We’re virtually using the same corn acreage that we did way back in 1977,” said Peterson. “The big difference is we had a 90.8 bushel average in 1977 and today we’re up to 164 bushels.”
He said that the mistaken belief that we are increasing acreage is perpetuating criticism of ethanol and stifling investment in next generation biofuels. “All of this foolishness about international land use and what’s going on in Brazil and all this other negative stuff that’s being put out by different interest groups with different agendas … it’s no damn wonder that nobody’s investing,” the chairman said bluntly. “People who want cellulosic ethanol have got to realize that corn ethanol has created the opportunity for us to even do this.”
“That word is not getting out to the public,” he continued. “All they here about is how terrible it is and how we’re going to starve everybody and all this other baloney that’s out there.” Making statements that farmers are increasing acreage to meet ethanol demand, Peterson says, “does a disservice by ginning up all these bogus arguments that we’ve been hearing.”
It’s ironic that the editors of The Wall Street Journal titled today’s editorial “Sins of Emission.” After all, the newspaper managed to omit a few important points. Why talk about increased corn yields and production per acre when we can pretend growing more corn means planting more acres? Why talk about energy security and the dangers of dependence on foreign oil when we can side with the environmental extremists we attack every other day of the week?
The Journal is a great paper and I often enjoy their editorial page. But these NYC elites need to get out to the farm more.
Host and chief national correspondent John King visited the farm of Neale Shaner in Fort Calhoun, and the Advanced BioEnergy ethanol plant in Fairmont, where he stood on a mound of dried distillers grains with ABE Plant Manager Grant Johanson. Here’s a taste of the article:
Watching their 12-row combine harvest the corn is a sight to behold, methodically scooping ears from the fields and dramatically increasing productivity. This corn won’t end up on a dinner table but instead at a giant Cargill plant just up the road, where it is processed into ethanol and several corn byproducts.
In Washington, ethanol is a source of controversy, with many lawmakers arguing it is an industry unfairly propped up by generous federal subsidies. To Nebraska, however, it is the direct source of roughly 1,000 jobs at ethanol production plants across the state, many of them located in small towns where those 40 to 50 plant jobs are the local gold standard.
As the battle for biotech crops continues in many countries, including Africa, a recent study finds that improved corn varieties have made a significant impact on reducing poverty.
According to an article published in Agricultural Economics, a multi-country study documents the significant role international maize research plays in reducing poverty. It finds that since the mid-1990s, more than one million people per year have escaped poverty through the adoption of new maize varieties.
Key economic benefits from maize research are primarily the result of the productivity gains farmers experience after adopting modern varieties. While notably scant prior to the 1980s, the percentage of MVs found in a maize area grew from 5 % in the 1970s to 60% in 2005. The study results suggest that without research to maintain or increase maize yields, poverty in the region would be substantially worse.
Googling around for more information on African maize production, I found this story on the Alliance for a Green Revolution in African (AGRA) website that tells the story of Able Traore, a West African farmer who started using modern seed varieties on his small farm two years ago that have increased his yields by 50 percent. “If I had known what I know now, I would not have left the country for any other place. I wish that all my kids become farmers. Farming is the most pleasant job you can do in Mali,” Traore says. How true is that?
Of course, it’s not just better, higher yielding varieties that will continue to help Africans feed themselves. It is also access to more modern farming methods, fertilizer and inputs. As the AGRA website states: “We know that through dramatic improvements to agriculture, prosperity can replace poverty. In most modern economies, no lasting success has been achieved without first building a strong agricultural foundation.” True again.
No doubt that much of the credit for the improvement over the past 30 years in Africa must be given to the late Dr. Norman Borlaug. In 1986, Borlaug began working with the Sasakawa Africa Association, which aims to defeat malnutrition and poverty in Africa. At a memorial for Borlaug earlier this month, Yohei Sasakawa promised to carry on Borlaug’s dream that African children would someday not have to go to bed hungry. “You cultivated a dream that would empower the farmers, you planted the seeds of hope, you watered them with enthusiasm, you gave them sunshine, you inspired with your passion, you harvested confidence in the hearts of African farmers,” he said. Amen.
I always find it strange when consumer product companies use their advertising dollars to support media that attack them. A colleague sent over a complaint about Friday’s episode of The Martha Stewart Show, where she had professional food nag Michael Pollan on as a guest, and they spent a good deal of time complaining about how evil corn was. Did you know that cows are force-fed corn? You can watch the episode online if you wish.
What is disturbing is that when I went to Martha’s eponymous Web site I was confronted with ads for M&Ms. Now, I like M&Ms, especially Peanut M&Ms. But the darn things do have corn starch and corn syrup in them. Martha should be ashamed to be taking dollars from them, and MARS Inc. should be ashamed for paying her to attack one of their most popular products.
And then there are the banner ads for Purina ONE pet foods that we humans force-feed to our dogs and cats. Visit the Web site and you learn these dangerous pet foods contain corn bran. And corn gluten meal. And ground yellow corn. And whole grain corn.
Should we boycott these and the other advertisers until they boycott Martha?
The corn harvest continues to crawl along at a snail’s pace due to unfavorable weather conditions across most of the corn belt.
“The corn harvest progress crept ahead just three points during the last week to reach 20 percent by the 25th of October,” says USDA meteorologist Brad Rippey. “That’s behind last year’s pace of 37 percent and way behind the five year average of 58 percent.”
According to the latest report from the National Agricultural Statistics Service, nearly every major corn producing state saw crop harvest progress of only 2-3 percent. Only two states – Tennessee and Kentucky – saw double digit progress. Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania and Colorado made a little better than average progress. But, North Dakota is only reporting two percent of the corn crop harvested at this point, compared to 33 percent on average.
On the upside, the crop remains in good condition, off just one percent from the previous week at 69 rated good to excellent – and 90 percent is now rated mature.
This is probably the first year that farmers have started tweeting their harvest. Expect to see more of it.
One Nebraska farmer (@huskerfarm) sent out a Twitter video of him harvesting some corn in south central Nebraska. Ryan Weeks is just one of many farmers starting to use this new media technology to bring his own farming story to the public – kind of like reality TV, only better!
Ryan uses a BlackBerry and TwitVid to tweet – the program is free and all you need is a good cell phone like a BlackBerry or an iPhone to make it happen from the cab of your combine. Here is Ryan’s harvest tweet:
My first attempt at a harvest video from the combine with my Blackberry Tour. #harvest#farm#agchat
The blender pump program introduced by corn growers and the ethanol industry earlier this year was promoted to fuel retailers this week at the NACS show in Las Vegas.
This annual convention of the Association for Convenience and Petroleum Retailing draws some 10,000 visitors and is the premier event to reach the primary marketers of fuel – convenience store owners. “We’re here to educate them on the opportunities that blending ethanol presents to their business,” said Robert White with the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) at the show.
The program, called BYO (Blend Your Own) Ethanol, was introduced as partnership between RFA, the National Corn Growers Association and the American Coalition of Ethanol (ACE) at the 22nd Ethanol Conference & Trade Show in August. “We’ve had a lot of great response from the states who want to get more information about blending and blender pumps,” said Ron Lamberty of ACE. “Everybody that has used blender pumps, anybody that I’ve heard from, has done well. They prefer it as the way to sell E85.”
Listen to a report with Robert and Ron from ACE here:
Europe is sitting on a ticking time bomb. The ticking began when the European Union decided to cave in to its squeaky wheel minority that believes biotechnology is a mistake. The resulting zero tolerance policy regarding even minute levels of genetically modified crops now has the EU looking at a bare cupboard.
European food, trade and agriculture groups say that without a clear and effective response the EU faces a crisis in the food and livestock feed chain, with a total cost impact of roughly 4 billion Euros.
“I have a suggestion for Ms. Vassiliou (EU Ag Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou), stop staring into the headlights like the proverbial deer and open up Europe,” said one trader at the Chicago Board of Trade. “Once she does, even if it’s for a limited time or amount, this will have a huge impact for corn, DDGS, and soybeans. The toothpaste will be out of the tube!”
The E.U. Agricultural sector has been in a precarious position for years as they become increasingly less competitive globally due to being denied access to the latest seed technology. But now the looming shadow of scarcity has hit home.
“Every day, millions of people in the United States and around the world consume GM food. It’s no less healthy or nutritious than non-GM food,” says Iowa farmer Tim Burrack in recent comments written for Truth About Trade and Technology. “We know this from years of experience as well as extensive scientific and regulatory testing. GM foods have never so much as caused anyone to sneeze.”
Making your stomach growl…..that’s another matter!
Since when did CSI Miami become a science fiction offering? The only crime on last night’s episode titled “Bad Seed” was a poor script and even worse research. The last time I saw this much misinformation in one place it was a political convention.
Apparently the creative well of ideas on novel ways to send people to the great beyond must have dried up in season 8. With more versions of CSI than there are television networks, I guess this was bound to happen.
The convoluted plot line did no less than trying to link together E-coli, water pollution from a cattle feedlot, botulism and genetic engineering in corn into a single plot line that came off looking like a spoof of a bad ‘70’s cop show.
If you watched this episode as a blank slate you would walk away thinking farms today are big/corporate, cold and uncaring (hey, we don’t mind killing a few of you if it is for the greater good), technology is bad, and there is no oversight what so ever over food quality or how it is produced.
Rather than rehash all the implausible points in last night’s story line let’s just say there are four big reasons why this CSI train wreck would never happen: 1. The Food and Drug Administration 2. The Environmental Protection Agency 3. The U.S. Department of Agriculture 4. Family farmers who are the best in the world at what they do.
A couple of words of advice in closing: If you want to do a story on corn, try any place but Florida. They grow a whopping 160,000 acres of field corn all of which is fed to cattle, not people. Think CSI Des Moines!
While praising the agriculture industry for meeting the demand for corn-based ethanol, Dr. Shah stated that “very importantly — increased corn acreage supported greater ethanol output.”
Host and chief national correspondent John King visited the farm of Neale Shaner in Fort Calhoun, and the Advanced BioEnergy ethanol plant in Fairmont, where he stood on a mound of dried distillers grains with ABE Plant Manager Grant Johanson. Here’s a taste of the article:
Googling around for more information on African maize production, I found 
The corn harvest continues to crawl along at a snail’s pace due to unfavorable weather conditions across most of the corn belt.
The blender pump program introduced by corn growers and the ethanol industry earlier this year was promoted to fuel retailers this week at the NACS show in Las Vegas. 
Europe is sitting on a ticking time bomb. The ticking began when the European Union decided to cave in to its squeaky wheel minority that believes biotechnology is a mistake. The resulting zero tolerance policy regarding even minute levels of genetically modified crops now has the EU looking at a bare cupboard.
Since when did CSI Miami become a science fiction offering? The only crime on last night’s episode titled “Bad Seed” was a poor script and even worse research. The last time I saw this much misinformation in one place it was a political convention.