One of the sweetest presentations at this year’s Corn Utilization and Technology Conference had to do with high fructose corn syrup. The presenter was John White, White Technical Research. John does work for the Corn Refiner’s Association and greeted people in their booth.
John caught my attention during his presentation when he said that all the negative information you’ve heard about high fructose corn syrup is completely wrong. Whoa. All of it? Yep. There is a huge amount of factual and scientific information on the subject. He calls it a mythology that has taken hold that wants to portray HFCS in a bad light. It is basically the same as regular sugar. Plain and simple. People just want to find something to blame for weight issues and the reality is that they’re consuming more of everything. You can’t lay the blame on HFCS.
You can download (mp3) and listen to my interview with John White here:
Find good information on HFCS on Twitter: SweetFacts
The San Francisco Chronicle ran a hit piece on ethanol on its front page yesterday, blaming it for hypoxia and the “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico. Balderdash. We’ve responded to the paper, making three Important points:
First, only a small percentage of corn grown in the United States becomes ethanol — about one in five bushels, when you account for the ethanol coproducts used as livestock feed. The story might as well have blamed golf courses.
Second, the hypoxic zone has changed widely from year to year, with no connection to increased ethanol production.
Finally, everyone admits that there are numerous causes for hypoxia besides agriculture, including urban runoff and industrial sewage, and that there is still a lot we don’t know about hypoxia. Focusing on only one cause out of many will never lead to a more complete solution.
The Chronicle story came out of the Chronicle’s Washington bureau, and Washington is home to many BP lobbyists and anti-ethanol crusaders, so someone obviously pitched this idea to the writer. There is a series of attacks being waged on corn farmers and ethanol producers by people who are a little concerned that the Gulf oil disaster is bad news for some the oil industry and want to divert attention away.
A University of Chicago economist says banning the herbicide Atrazine would add to the current unemployment level in the United States.
According to University of Chicago economist Don Coursey, a ban on the herbicide would cost between 21,000 and 48,000 jobs from corn production losses alone. His findings were presented today at a National Press Club briefing sponsored by the Triazine Network in Washington. Coursey estimates atrazine’s annual production value to corn alone to be between $2.3 billion and $5 billion. Atrazine’s additional value to sorghum, sugar cane and other uses increases these totals.
Coursey says his estimate of job losses would be primarily in the agriculture and rural sectors of the economy, where unemployment is currently about 12 percent. A ban on atrazine he says would increase that to about 14.6 percent. Another way of looking at it, says Coursey, is assuming that all the job losses would occur in the corn-growing sector of the nation. “Starting from the current unemployment rate of about 11%, you double that either to 10.9 plus 11, or as much as an increase of 25% more. That is, 11 plus 25 or into the high 30% unemployment rate in the corn sector. That’s why I feel justified in using the word devastating,” he said. Most of that would be felt by small family farmers.
The Triazine Network is made up of groups representing crops as diverse as citrus, grapes, grain sorghum, nuts, corn, nursery crops, fruits, vegetables, Christmas trees, soybeans and sugarcane that have banded together to respond to the special review of triazine herbicides by the EPA. Kansas Corn Growers executive director Jere White serves as chairman of the group. “No one cares more about the safety of agricultural pesticides than farmers who use them on their farms. It’s where we live and where we raise our children,” said White. “If sound scientific research finds that atrazine, or any agricultural pesticide, cannot be used safely we will be the first to agree with increased regulation. But sound scientific research has found repeatedly that atrazine is safe.” White says the current re-review of atrazine has been prompted by activist-fed media reports and shoddy science.
EPA re-registered atrazine in 2006 based on the evidence of nearly 6,000 studies and more than 80,000 public comments. However, the agency began an additional, unscheduled review of atrazine in late 2009. Atrazine is the second most-used herbicide in the United States, controlling a broad range of weeds in corn, sorghum and sugar cane for over 50 years. No suitable replacement for it currently exists in terms of efficacy and affordability.
If you have watched any of the World Cup soccer tournament, you no doubt heard that incessant sound make by blowing the noisemakers known as “vuvuzelas” that were popularized by South African soccer fans. The plastic blowing horns produce a loud, distinctive monotone note that some people say sounds like the constant droning of a huge swarm of bees.
Critics of corn – whether it be ethanol, sweetener, or just farming in general – can sometimes sound like the constant droning of vuvuzelas, churning out the same old tired arguments in a loud, distinctive monotone. Looking through my Google alerts for ethanol over the holiday weekend I found a number of articles and blog postings that use those vuvuzela-type arguments. When the stories offer a place for comments, I always look to see what is being said and may offer some comment of my own to try and break through that monotony.
About a dozen corn grower states recently got some social media training by AgChat expert Michele Payn-Knoper. While much of that training focuses on how you can use social media tools like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter to tell the positive story of agriculture to the general public, it also involves taking the initiative to set the record straight when you see agriculture being attacked in on-line stories. It has never been any easier to provide your own editorial comments than it is today with stories found on-line. No printing or stamps involved, no letters to mail, no gatekeeper (in most cases) to edit or silence your point of view. There may be moderation for some comments (which is highly encouraged, if you have or want to start your own blog) but usually comments are approved. The moderation is mainly to prevent spam comments from getting through.
My point is – make some of your own noise! The articles I saw had NO opposing viewpoints from corn growers or their advocates. Take some time once a week to browse through on-line articles that are critical of farming or ethanol or corn products and make your voice heard. Sign up for Google alerts for corn, farming or ethanol so you know what is being said and respond. The forum is there, we need to utilize it.
One of the sponsors for this year’s Corn Utilization and Technology Conference was Monsanto. Besides sponsoring and exhibiting, Monsanto also had Dr. Robert Reiter, Vice President of Breeding Technology, on the program. His presentation focused on improving the efficiency of corn.
Monsanto has a goal of helping corn growers double their yield by 2030. Reiter says their biotechnology pipeline is helping make this a reality. His team is working on improving corn water use or as he puts it, “getting more crop per drop.” He says the amount of money being invested in these technologies is unprecedented.
You can download (mp3) and listen to my interview with Dr. Reiter here:
This past weekend the family and I drove about 1200 miles, leaving the St. Louis area to visit family in Lake Zurich, Ill., and then driving down to Ft. Campbell in Kentucky to drop our son off at his barracks. Then back home. About 1200 miles in all, the vast majority in Illinois, where the corn was growing tall and straight, for the most part. Illinois saw the highest increase in planted acres, according to the USDA, up from 12 million acres in 2009 to 12.6 million acres in 2010. Great news for our hard-working Illinois corn growers!
I also saw a lot of cars with Flex-Fuel logos on the back, and wished we had the same with our 2006 Toyota Sienna. But that was not an option.
This past weekend, Robert Zubrin wrote a great piece in the Washington Times calling for open fuel standards. The idea is to get more cars on the road that can handle a variety of fuels, whether it foreign-oil-based gasoline, domestic-and-renewable corn ethanol, or even methanol. This would add about a hundred bucks to the price of the car and give us more energy independence, which means more energy security.
As Zubrin puts it:
“We are not addicted to oil. Our cars are addicted to oil. They are like a tribe of people who, because of some unfortunate flaw, can only eat one kind of food, say herring. Thus, if the herring merchants combine to rig up the price of their product to $100 per pound, the tribesmen have no choice but to submit. They would be far better off if they could become omnivores, capable of eating steak, ice cream, corn, eggs, apples, etc., as the power to use such alternatives would make them immune from herring-cartel extortion.”
It’s time to see more energy freedom on the roads — not just in the Corn Belt, but across the Land of the Free.
Photo: Zubrin autographs his book “Energy Victory” at the 2009 Commodity Classic.
If you ever get a chance to watch a presentation by Fred Below, University of Illinois, then you should do it. You’ll not only be entertained and informed but come away energized. He is passionate about his work and you will have no doubts about that when he’s done. He says his work mainly consists in figuring out how to sustainably reach a 300 bushel of corn per acre yield.
At the Corn Utilization and Technology Conference his topic was “Genetic and Agronomic Contributions to More Efficient Corn Production.” One of the messages he wanted to impart was that due to improvements in corn genetics some of the standard use factors for nitrogen are a little high. He urges producers to look very carefully at their use of fertilizer because they can find ways to save which will benefit them financially while improving environmental impact. He thinks this efficiency will continue to improve too. So even as corn yields increase the amount of fertilizer and energy input will go down. This also helps those involved in ethanol production because it shows the EPA that “We actually produce ethanol with a lot less environmental impact.”
You can download (mp3) and listen to my interview with Fred here:
One of the sweetest presentations at this year’s Corn Utilization and Technology Conference had to do with high fructose corn syrup. The presenter was John White, White Technical Research. John does work for the Corn Refiner’s Association and greeted people in their booth.
According to University of Chicago economist Don Coursey, a ban on the herbicide would cost between 21,000 and 48,000 jobs from corn production losses alone. His 
If you have watched any of the 
One of the sponsors for this year’s Corn Utilization and Technology Conference was Monsanto. Besides sponsoring and exhibiting, Monsanto also had Dr. Robert Reiter, Vice President of Breeding Technology, on the program. His presentation focused on improving the efficiency of corn.
If you ever get a chance to watch a presentation by Fred Below, University of Illinois, then you should do it. You’ll not only be entertained and informed but come away energized. He is passionate about his work and you will have no doubts about that when he’s done. He says his work mainly consists in figuring out how to sustainably reach a 300 bushel of corn per acre yield.