Posted By Joanna March 31, 2010
President Obama gave a speech this morning from a hanger at Andrews Air Force Base reiterating our country’s need for energy independence. While he merely gave a “passover” comment regarding biofuels, his big announcement is that our country will be pursuing offshore drilling as well as drill in sensitive environmental areas of Alaska in the quest for energy independence.
The irony is that we don’t have to drill for more oil when we can grow our energy with less harm to the environment while boosting our economy. However, day after day people keep focusing on what’s wrong with biofuels, rather than what’s wrong with fossil fuels and instead of focusing on what’s right with biofuels.
Two weeks ago a “new study” came out addressing indirect land use and claiming that it is worse than what the EPA or California Air Resources Board has accounted for. Needless to say, the researchers were funded by Big Oil and the report merely rehashed discredited science. Then yesterday, the National Wildlife Federation released a report that asked for the RFS to be repealed. Seriously? Because dirty fossil fuels are the way to a brighter, cleaner future? I think not.
This orchestrated smear campaign brings to mind the lyrics from the Black Eyed Peas song, “Where is the love?”
Father, Father, Father help us
Send us some guidance from above
‘Cause people got me, got me questionin’
Where is the love?
Where is the love? And where is the love for the hardworking American’s that not only feed us but are poised to produce our energy as well? I recently moved to a farm, in part to better understand the role farmers play in America. I wish that every American, and more specifically, every environmental activist, could do the same. Maybe then people would quit being so caught up in all the wrong things which paralyzes us from taking action, and focus on the good things and how they are evolving to ensure our energy future.
But until we have the opportunity to live in Utopia, we must keep up the good fight and continue to get the positive messages out about agriculture in a world that continues to be guided by the wrong principals.
Posted By Cindy March 31, 2010
More corn and soybean acres are in the forecast for this year, according to the USDA Prospective Plantings report out this morning.
Corn growers intend to plant 88.8 million acres of corn for all purposes in 2010, up 3 percent from both last year and 2008. Expected acreage is up in many States due to reduced winter wheat acreage and expectations of improved net returns. Acreage increases of 300,000 or more are expected in Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, and Ohio. The largest decreases are expected in Iowa, down 200,000 acres, and Texas, down 150,000 acres.
Soybean producers intend to plant 78.1 million acres in 2010, up less than 1 percent from last year. If realized, the U.S. planted area will be the largest on record. Acreage increases of 100,000 or more are expected in Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota. The largest decreases are expected in Georgia and North Carolina, both 150,000 acres less than 2009. If intentions are realized, the planted acreage in Kansas, North Dakota, and Pennsylvania will be the largest on record.
Early reaction to the report is that total acreage is too low and more corn and soybean acres will probably be planted. Corn growers in Iowa say they definitely expect to see their acres increase when it’s all said and done. During a conference call this morning, Iowa Corn Promotion Board Chairman Tim Burrack from the northeast part of the state said the survey was done a few weeks ago when the weather still looked pretty bleak, but that has turned around dramatically. “In our area, I am amazed at how quickly winter left and spring came,” Tim said. Field work has been underway since Friday and he says they should be ready to plant as soon as the soil warms up.
Iowa Corn Growers Association board member Kevin Ross on the opposite end of the state in the southwest says the corn that was left unharvested over winter also probably had an impact on the acreage estimate, but the combines are running now and getting the last of that unharvested corn out of the fields. Kevin says it looks pretty good after the long winter, drier and with higher test weights. “There really is minimal damage from wildlife and the condition of the crop as far as mold is very good – it’s shocking that there is no real damage in that respect,” Kevin said.
The weather is just about ideal right now in the corn belt – maybe Mother Nature will give the Midwest a nice spring break this year for a change!
Posted By Cindy March 30, 2010
The head of the Humane Society of the United States says agriculture interests are just “paranoid” about the organization’s motives.
In an interview with Brownfield Network about the proposed “puppy mill” ballot initiative in Missouri that would impose new regulations on dog breeders, HSUS president Wayne Pacelle refuted the idea that they were ultimately targeting the livestock industry. “I don’t see how supporting a measure to address dog breeders has anything to do with livestock agriculture,” Pacelle said. “It’s an irrational and paranoid response.”
While he says the dog breeding measure in Missouri has nothing to do with animal agriculture, Pacelle does admit they want to “improve the treatment of animals raised for food” in other states, like Ohio. “We make no apologies for urging humane treatment of animals raised for food,” he says. It is important to note that Pacelle is a strict vegan himself.
Pacelle is on the board of another group called the Global Animal Partnership, “an international nonprofit organization dedicated to facilitating and encouraging continuous improvement in animal agriculture.” This group promotes a “Five Step Animal Welfare Rating” for cattle, chickens and pigs that includes all kinds of restrictions that would ultimately result in a drastic reduction in the amount of meat produced if they were adopted as laws or even if major restaurant or grocery chains were to adopt them as standards. To use just one example, cattle would be required to spend their entire lives on the same farm and couldn’t be sold at auction or through sale barns.
The executive director of the Global Animal Partnership is Miyun Park, who was on the staff of HSUS until taking that position last year. She is also the co-editor with a guy called “Moby” of a new book called Gristle, a collection of essays that describe the “grisly perils of factory farming.” In an interview with Grist Magazine, Moby says his “dream is to end subsidies for agribusiness and end subsidies for animal production and basically let the free market decide the cost of a pound of beef and a pound of chicken.” Showing complete ignorance – ask a cattle producer if he gets any “subsidies” – Moby continues, “If there were no subsidies for beef, a pound of beef would cost around $25, and if every aspect of animal production wasn’t subsidized, a family of four going to McDonald’s for a quick meal would spend $75.” Incidentally, one of the essays in the book is written by … Wayne Pacelle.
While they will say they don’t want to directly eliminate animal agriculture, the restrictions they want to place to ensure the “humane treatment of animals raised for food” would indeed have that effect, since it would be impossible to continue to produce meat and still make a profit. That is why agriculture interests are rightly concerned about the impact groups like this could have on the industry.
It’s not paranoid if they really are out to get you.
Posted By Cathryn March 30, 2010
It seems that every new study that comes out involving high fructose corn syrup, no matter how flawed, makes huge headlines. The media hype surrounding HFCS would lead the average person to believe that by simply cutting HFCS from their diet they could become the slender, athletic person they have always desired to be. In a culture that values the quick fix, it is no wonder that this idea is gaining traction.
It is almost indisputable that the U.S. currently faces an obesity epidemic. With a growing population of people growing in their midsection, our society faces serious repercussions such as decreased life expectancy and increased healthcare spending. In the face of such a grave situation, it is irresponsible to blithely suggest that simply removing one ingredient from American diets will reverse this trend.
As most responsible, respectable academics concur, obesity results from a combination of factors and not the ingestion of one insidious ingredient. Instead, sedentary lifestyles and an abundance of affordable food together create a situation where uncontrolled weight gain comes easily.
Don’t buy into the media hype. Think for yourself. If the chemical make-up, caloric content and sweetness of sugar and HFCS are nearly identical, why would one product cause more significant weight gain? If only five percent of the corn crop is used to make HFCS, why would detractors act as if it is a conspiracy to use this safe, affordable product to ensure foods meet market demands?
Taxing and demonizing HFCS will not benefit the obese, the average consumer or our country. Curing obesity requires positive lifestyle changes that embrace caloric moderation and physical activity.
So show the HFCS detractors that you are smarter than they think. Examine and analyze information, take responsibility for your own health and do not allow them to demonize our quintessential American crop. Here’s one great resource.
Posted By Mark March 29, 2010
The adoption of distillers grains feed product from the ethanol industry is making the nation’s beef supply better, higher quality and recent numbers show the trend first noted last fall is continuing.
While many debate the pros and cons of corn or grass fed beef, the nation’s cattle producers continue to do what they do best which is provide tasty, nutritious and relatively inexpensive beef and with the help of a distillers grain, a co-product of making ethanol fuel from corn.
A research review by Certified Angus Beef’s Larry Corah and Mark McCully released last fall point to improvements in genetics and ration changes made possible in part by increased supplies of DDGS as drivers for the improved quality.
Critics of corn-fed beef have been having a field day in recent years thanks to the like of folks like Michael Pollan – author of Food Rules – who argue grass fed beef is superior to those who are finished on corn prior to going to market. This despite abundant research that shows the differences between conventional, organic, and grass fed beef regarding nutrient composition and nutritional quality are few and insignificant in terms of human nutrition.
The nation’s beef quality has continued its rise in recent weeks, with nearly 65% of federally graded cattle grading Choice — an increase compared to 60.1% reported July 2009, according to Certified Angus Beef LLC (CAB).
The numbers add to a trend ending a 30-year decline — a trend that’s likely to continue, said Larry Meadows, chief of USDA’s meat grading and certification branch.
“There has been a huge progression of selection tools to allow breeders to make improvement on carcass traits impacting both quality and yield grade potential,” according to Dr. Sally Northcutt, American Angus Association® genetic research director.
Selection tools like those offered by the American Angus Association now include high-accuracy genomic-enhanced expected progeny differences (GE-EPDs) incorporating Association pedigree, carcass and ultrasound performance data, with genomic profile results to produce EPDs for carcass.
Posted By Cindy March 26, 2010
Environmentalist and actress Daryl Hannah took her ethanol-powered “Kill Bill” 1979 Pontiac Trans Am on the road in California this week to promote the advantages of higher ethanol blends.
The Trans Am was given to Daryl by director Quentin Tarantino after she drove it as a one-eyed assassin in the movie “Kill Bill.” But since the car ran on gasoline, she just let it sit in her garage until last year when ethanol advocate David Blume, author of “Alcohol Can Be a Gas”, came up with the idea to have it modified to run on at least up to 85 percent ethanol, although they claim it can run on 100 percent like the Indy cars. The car was converted to run on ethanol last fall to refute EPA’s concerns about higher blends not being appropriate for older vehicles.
Hannah and Blume were in Santa Cruz on Tuesday to do a local Community TV live call-in show called “Eco-Review” and then traveled to Sacramento for an appearance at Flyer’s fuel station. They presented data from emissions test results on the car conducted at a California certified smog station that compared exhaust emissions of the vehicle using unleaded gas with E-10, E-15, and E-85 fuel blends. The testing found significant reductions of carbon monoxide, hydro carbons and nitrous oxide as the ethanol blends increased.
Daryl has been a backer of biodiesel for many years and also owns a vintage El Camino that runs on biodiesel – or “loves to drink vegetable oil,” as she would say. She is a big promoter of sustainability, has been a vegetarian since she was a child, and is pretty much the walking definition of an environmental wacko – so the fact that she is out in California promoting ethanol is a good thing. Maybe they will listen to her!
Thanks to Paul Wikoff of Sacramento for the great photos.
Posted By Mark March 24, 2010
Is it too much to ask for some integrityand just plain honesty in the world? Growing up I probably came across as totally naïve to many of those around me because I believed authority figures like government officials and scientists and most any adult in my life. And you could have convinced me my parents carried the second tablet down the mountain for Moses. The reason was simple…I had no reason not to.
Today, I share trust and dole out faith in the smallest of measures because we seem to be surrounded by fibs, manufactured “facts,” bogus science, and politicians and businessmen that would have been whacked back to the stone age with a ruler by Sister Mary Margaret in third grade.
A quick look at the news this week easily surfaced examples of this kind of fast and loose use of incorrect information, handy subterfuge, and dare I say it…lies.
The first is news from the London Telegraph which notes the venerable United Nations has admitted a report linking livestock to global warming exaggerated the impact of eating meat on climate change or global warming.
The 2006 study, Livestock’s Long Shadow, claimed meat production was responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions – more than transportation.
“Its conclusions were heralded by campaigners urging consumers to eat less meat to save the planet. Among those calling for a reduction in global meat consumption is Sir Paul McCartney.”
Now Sir Paul doesn’t strike me as the scientist type so perhaps that should have been a clue. If Dr. Ringo had made the claim that would have been different. The point is for three years many people have been assured eating meat would leading to global Armageddon brought on by nothing less than cow flatulence. Oh, the indignity.
All the time the truth is that “meat and milk production generates less greenhouse gas than most environmentalists claim and that the emissions figures were calculated differently to the transport figures, resulting in an “apples-and-oranges analogy that truly confused the issue.”
If your jaded self is still with me it’s on to example 2. While we have been blissfully driving about in our trucks and SUVs it seems the oil magnates of the world have been manipulating oil supply numbers for financial gain and to curry political favor. (Insert sound effects of heavy and shocked intake of breath here). (more…)
Posted By Cindy March 24, 2010
U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer (NY-D) apparently supports biodiesel production in his state, but not corn ethanol.
The senator visited New York’s only commercial biodiesel producer last month to show his love and assure them of his support for the federal tax incentive for biodiesel. However, in a recent Morning Comments subscription email, Informa Economics reports that Schumer has no such love for corn ethanol. In a letter to a constituent, the senator said that “corn ethanol provides no environmental, economic, or security benefit over petroleum, and it raises serious ethical concerns about our obligations towards our neighbors.” At the same time, Schumer does support the development of cellulosic ethanol, saying production does “have the potential to protect the environment and reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil, without putting strains on American agriculture or other countries’ food supplies.”
Schumer’s letter prompted officials with Western New York Energy (WNYE) to write him a letter and set the record on corn ethanol straight.
“Rather than pointing out the inconsistency in your ethanol and biodiesel positions, we wanted to take this opportunity to provide you with more current information about America’s ethanol industry in the hopes that you will revisit your position,” wrote plant owners John and Michael Sawyer, who proceeded to do just that by disputing the senator’s opinions on the fuel. “The justifiable reasons you state for supporting biodiesel and next generation ethanol technologies are the same reasons that should compel you to support existing ethanol producers, including those in your home state of New York,” they concluded. (Read the entire letter here.)
They are planning to contact the senator’s office to set up a tour of their 55 million gallon per year plant located in Medina, NY which was the first ethanol plant built in the northeast United States. The plant uses some 20 million bushels of corn each year.
Posted By Cathryn March 23, 2010
There is no shortage of media coverage of ethanol. From attempting to predict the direction the industry may head to perpetuating myths such as a “food versus fuel” debate, the mainstream media throw a barrage of speculation and misinformation at the public. In the end, most normal people end up confused or overwhelmed.
But today, a concise, direct news story spoke directly to the importance of ethanol. This year, with production predicted to increase by 16.2 percent, ethanol is expected to displace the need for 370 million barrels of oil globally.
Information on the negative impact of oil use also abounds. From greenhouse gas emissions to a dwindling supply, almost anyone not personally invested in the industry understands why replacing oil benefits our planet and our pocketbooks.
Ethanol is reducing the need for millions of barrels of oil right now. The impact of this offset is felt immediately.
Don’t let the incessant chatter obscure the truth; ethanol provides a real-world solution to a pressing global problem.
Posted By Cindy March 22, 2010
Michigan ag groups held a celebration of meat on National Ag Day Saturday, which was also Michigan Meatout Day. Hundreds attended a barbeque on the grounds of the Michigan State Capitol, even though it was organized at the very last minute and the weather was cold and wet.
The “Ag Day Meat BBQ Cookout” was organized by Barry County farmer George Hubka and other volunteers who served nearly 200 attendees about 500 hamburgers and hot dogs in about a two hour period. Hubka managed to get everything for the event donated and got support from the major ag organizations in just a few days last week. Among the sponsors for the event were the Michigan Cattlemen’s Association, Michigan Corn Grower Association, Michigan Beef Industry Commission, and the Michigan Pork Producers Association.
The hot dogs were donated by Michigan’s turkey growers through the Michigan Turkey Producers Co-op of Grand Rapids, MI. Hamburgers were donated for the event by Sobie Meats & Byron Center Meats in Grand Rapids, MI. In addition, white and chocolate milk was provided by MMPA (Michigan Milk Producers Association) and processed by Prairie Farms dairy in Battle Creek, MI. Buns for the BBQ were donated by the Sara Lee and Butternut baking companies.
It was an amazing show of unity for the agriculture industry in Michigan organized in direct response to Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s insulting declaration last week calling on residents of the state to not eat meat on Saturday. Added support around the country came through the Great American Steak Out on Facebook, where hundreds posted photos of Saturday steak dinners.
Just a little reminder that we didn’t climb to the top of the food chain to become vegetarians!
