As a more upbeat follow-up to our last discussion of ethanol in the Golden State, there is this news item about how ethanol and biodiesel availability is expanding in California.
OAKLAND, CA–(Marketwire – August 31, 2010) – At a grand opening event today at the Bay Area’s newest renewable fuel station, California Energy Commissioner Anthony Eggert, Director of California Governor Schwarzenegger’s Office of Economic Development (GoED) Joel Ayala, and officials from Propel Fuels, CALSTART, and East Bay Clean Cities, formally launched Propel’s Bay Area operations, which will include more than 20 stations across the Bay, with up to 10 open by the year’s end. The event also announced a $10.9 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and California Energy Commission (CEC) to build and operate 75 retail renewable fuel stations throughout California over the next two years.
The annual Farm Progress Show is underway in Boone, Iowa and leaders from the National Corn Growers Association are on the scene helping promote Iowa corn and NCGA. Corn Commentary Editor, Mark Lambert, known as @CornGuy on Twitter, is doing the driving.
I spoke with Bart Schott, NCGA 1st VP, sitting in the back behind Mark. Bart says they’ve been conducting media interviews and all the issues have come up that include the ethanol waiver, foreign trade and transportation. He’s impressed with the show and commented on how things have changed by pointing to a grain cart across the street from the media tent that holds more corn than his Dad’s granaries had when he was growing up.
In the face of bad news for the general economy in the United States, agriculture is looking pretty good.
Last week we heard that U.S. economic growth dropped to just 1.6 percent in the second quarter of this year, compared to 3.7 percent for the first three months, and some say it could be below one percent next quarter. Meanwhile, unemployment continues to flirt with double digits, riding at 9.5 percent overall.
But the agricultural sector is showing a significant increase in both farm income and exports. It’s all up about 23-24 percent compared to last year. Granted, last year was down 20 percent from the year before, which was a record for exports and near record for farm income. But, it definitely spells R-E-C-O-V-E-R-Y, unlike the rest of the economy, despite the best of efforts to make that happen.
“The great thing about this recovery is that it’s sector-wide,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack in a press conference today about the new reports. “While an increase in the value of livestock production accounted for much of the upward movement, the value of dairy production rose by 26.2 percent; the value of meat animal production is up 14.6 percent, and the value of poultry and egg production rose 8.4 percent.” That’s all good news for corn farmers.
USDA increased its forecast for 2010 exports by $3 billion compared to May to $107.5 billion, due mostly to greater grain and feed shipments and higher values along with increased livestock, poultry, and dairy product exports. “Agriculture is one of the few major sectors of the economy today that has a trade surplus, which we are now forecasting to be a little over $30 billion,” said Vilsack. That is also forecast to get even better next year, up to $113 billion, very close to the record $115 in 2008, thanks to sharply higher unit values and volumes for wheat and corn, as well as increases in products like distillers’ dried grains (DDGS). Vilsack points out that every billion dollars in agricultural exports supports over 8,000 jobs and generates an additional $1.4 billion in economic activity.
Kind of makes you wonder where our economy would be right now without farmers and ranchers, doesn’t it? Vilsack noted the significance of the “underlying values of rural America and its farmers and ranchers to the resilience of the agriculture sector.” In other words, farmers and ranchers are not afraid of hard work, they have kept their debt below that of the rest of the economic sectors, and they continue to increase productivity through innovation and research.
It is really a very simple solution to economic problems. Hard work + low debt + increased productivity = economic recovery. The rest of the economy certainly could learn a lot from the farm.
Back in my home state, the Los Angeles Times has a story about a state program that invests in renewable fuels projects and a grant that provides some support to a California-based ethanol company. The story is rife with political allegations, but I’m going to set that aside to talk about a few remarks made about ethanol.
The story talks about the California Alternative and Renewable Fuel and Vehicle Technology Program, created by former Speaker of the Assembly Fabian Nuñez. In the article, he said that the program was designed to specifically not include supporting ethanol: There were “public assurances” made, the reporter writes. And Nuñez’s quote seems to support this:
“It’s appalling. We gave them a very clear direction where these funds should be going. Ethanol is yesterday’s news. It seems like there’s some inside deal going on.”
And there are also handy links to the legislation Nuñez authored to create the program, AB 118 of 2007 and AB 109 of 2008. Ethanol projects are clearly mentioned in both as suitable projects for funding.
Perhaps the reporter can follow this up in future stories. I somehow doubt it, because there are the comments from the reporter himself in the second paragraph, where he shows a little bias in how he picks and chooses his facts:
“When the fund was set up, its backers said it would not be used for corn ethanol, a decades-old gas additive that many environmental scientists argue is at least as bad for the planet as oil.”
Keep in mind, the advisory committee includes members of the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Union of Concerned Scientists, two organizations notorious for their unblinking opposition to corn ethanol. In fact, the NRDC representative was quoted indirectly saying that “converting one farmer’s corn into fuel means that another farmer would have to fire up a tractor to grow more food.” Obviously, this person needs an education on yield trends, but maybe he’s just not keeping up with what’s been going on in the Corn Belt.
But there are others the reporter could have spoke with, such as Brooke Coleman at the New Fuels Alliance, also an advisory committee member. And the writer also could have looked beyond the Golden State for a broader perspective.
As social media continues to grow, it evolves. What was commonplace even five years ago can be passé and unheard of services can become the new norm. In this environment, twitter came to be the social networking tool of choice for many on-the-go people trying to communicate succinctly as possible.
Twitter is a micro-blogging service that allows users to share messages of 140 characters or less. Users simply search for and find anyone they wish to follow. The person who they follow knows that the relationship exists, and has the power to block the follower, but, either way, does not have to reciprocate and follow the other person’s posts.
This trend toward brief, highly mobile mass communication has taken off at record speed.
400,000 tweets, single twitter posts, were recorded per quarter in 2007. This grew to 100 million tweets per quarter in 2008. By the end of 2009, this ballooned to 2 billion tweets per quarter. In February 2010 that Twitter users were sending 50 million tweets per day and, in the first quarter of 2010, 4 billion tweets were posted. As of June 2010, about 65 million tweets are posted each day, equaling about 750 tweets sent each second, according to Twitter.
This represents a major, easy opportunity for growers to get their message out. In quick 140 character bursts, growers can directly tell the story of ag to an attractive demographic. While 47 percent of users are under 34, 31 percent are between 35 and 49 with a full 21 percent of users over 50. Additionally, 46 percent of twitter users are college grads, significantly above the 27 percent national average.
So take a moment to brush up on your twitter. Below you will find all the information you need to know getting started. After that, it becomes second nature to spend just a few minutes a day promoting agriculture and reinforcing the importance of farming to America.
It was no surprise that the Humane Society of the United States would use the massive salmonella egg recall this week to crow about its agenda on cage-free eggs. It’s also no surprise that the “facts” they are touting are a bit egg-zaggerated.
“Eggs from caged birds have been found to be significantly more likely to pose a Salmonella threat than cage-free eggs,” states HSUS chief Wayne Pacelle, with complete authority, noting that “nine studies published in the last five years comparing Salmonella rates in cage and cage-free egg operations found higher rates in the cage confinement facilities.”
HumaneWatch was quick to point out that the HSUS view of some of those studies is a bit scrambled. For example, the 2005 study cited by HSUS, found that the main risk factors for salmonella were flock size, housing system, and farm with hens of different ages and concluded “the system with the lowest chance of infection was the cage system with wet manure.”
Another study cited by HSUS from 2008 says right at the beginning that “No significant differences could be found in prevalence of Salmonella between laying hens reared in conventional and enriched cages and aviary (free range).”
Nearly all of the studies found that the incidence of salmonella was higher in the summer time, and that it was closely linked to ingestion of dust or feces by the birds, which is often more likely in a free range environment. Yeah, chickens eat their poop – which is not just gross, it can lead to all kinds of diseases, including salmonella.
Just to be clear – no one is defending the producers responsible for the tainted eggs. The safety and security of our nation’s food supply is the number one concern of anyone involved in agriculture, yet no one denies there are some bad eggs. But, it’s kind of like getting a carton of eggs home and finding out that you have a broken one. Maybe you didn’t check the carton before you bought it, or maybe it broke on the way home. But, you don’t throw the whole carton out. You just get rid of that egg and vow to be more careful next time. That’s what we have to do in this situation. We have to find out what went wrong and do what we can to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
The event will focus on increasing exports of both coarse grains and the emerging growth market of the ethanol co-product dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS), and features an array of international leaders in ag commerce, including Dr. Bob Thompson with the National Center for Food and Agricultural Policy and Gary Blumenthal, president and CEO of World Perspectives Inc.
Dr. Thompson is scheduled to deliver the keynote address on the first day of the conference to provide perspective and insight on the world supply and demand situation will give attendees a better understanding of the world market. Blumenthal’s remarks during the second day luncheon will focus specifically on the growing global demand for U.S. DDGS. “As long as global population continues to grow, the demand for meat, milk and eggs will increase, and subsequently the demand for livestock and thus for DDGS will climb as well,” Blumenthal says.
More than 170 international buyers of U.S. DDGS and coarse grains are scheduled to attend the event, including representatives from China, Japan, Taiwan, Korea and Vietnam. Why should a corn farmer plan to attend? Consider this. The United States grows 42 percent of the world’s corn and supplies more than 60 percent of the world’s corn exports. Nearly 2 billion bushels of corn were exported last year to about 60 different countries and the current forecast for this year is just over 2 billion, according to USDA. Exports of DDGS to Southeast Asia doubled last year over 2008 and were already up nearly 75 percent over 2009 at the beginning of this year. With yet another record corn crop expected this year, it is more important than ever to expand our exports.
Join more than 300 other U.S. producers and agribusinesses for the Export Exchange. Registration is available on-line with a $100 discount for registrations received before September 4.
Sitting in on the Missouri Corn Growers Association’s Social Media Training Session, held in conjunction with the National Corn Growers Association as part of an overall campaign to improve farmer image, it became apparent rather quickly why so many people resist the growing trend of “Facebooking.” Simply put, many people fear Facebook will destroy their personal privacy.
While media horror stories perpetuate this myth, with a little forethought anyone can use this amazing communications tool. First, set strict privacy controls. Second, think before you post.
Adjusting the Facebook privacy settings can be a bit daunting to new social media users, but great online resources offer tutorials that guide users through the process while suggesting how to make their account as secure as they choose. Guides like this one (click here) explain all of the terminology, show how each decision affects personal privacy and teach how to adjust the settings to meet each users unique needs and preferences.
Then, think before you post. Even with strict privacy settings, the people that you allow to view your page will be able to see, and remember, what you write. In the heat of the moment, people often say things that they regret later. On Facebook, written words are actually published. By looking at each post a second time prior to hitting publish, users can make sure they put out the right message.
Facebook let’s a single person reach across the world and interacts with hundreds of thousands of other people looking to be informed, persuaded and entertained. By following these two easy privacy tips, anyone can take advantage of this unprecedented opportunity and get out their story.
This week we are supposed to be afraid of eating eggs. Apparently we have about a 1 in 20,000 chance of getting salmonella from eating eggs. The odds are slightly higher that you will die in a fall this year. I will take those odds and so would Vegas.
Interestingly enough I celebrated the big egg scare by whipping up a wonderful spinach quiche and an omelet the next day. I wish I could say I am really that sarcastic and warped, but I really already bought the stuff and had a hankering for eggs.
Eggs are a great tasting, inexpensive source of protein that are fast and easy to cook so I wasn’t real big on letting fear overpower good judgment or my taste buds. As with many food scares a little common sense goes a long ways toward keeping you safe, healthy and well fed.
Food related illnesses in the U.S. are actually pretty rare considering the size of our population and the amount of food we consume at home, at work, at play and on the run.
If an egg containing Salmonella has been kept refrigerated and someone who uses good hygiene practices serves it to you immediately after proper cooking, you’ll simply have a nutritious meal. If the egg has been improperly handled, though, you might experience the foodborne illness
“Remarkable” is how USDA meteorologist Brad Rippey describes the progress of this year’s corn crop.
“The corn crop, as of August 22, already passing the halfway mark for dented. That’s pretty remarkable for this early in the season,” Rippey says. In fact, 54 percent of the crop is dented, according to USDA’s latest report, compared to 37 percent for the five year average. Eight percent of the crop is mature, which is two points ahead of average and well ahead of last year at this time. USDA is not yet reporting harvest numbers, but states like North Carolina where over 70 percent of the crop is mature have already been combining for a couple of weeks now. Unfortunately, that state’s crop is in the poorest condition of all the states, with just 28 percent rated good to excellent – and most of that is just in the good category.
Nationwide, the crop is rated 70 percent good to excellent, with the Dakotas and Colorado over 80 percent. Even Iowa’s crop is still rated almost 70 percent good to excellent. ”Even though some areas of the State have continued to receive crop damage, the over all crop conditions remain in pretty good shape,” commented Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey, who is a corn farmer himself. Farmers in the area are optimistic, according to the Iowa Corn Growers Association.
Dean Taylor, a corn and soybean farmer from Prairie City, Iowa and president-elect of the Iowa Corn Growers Association has been affected by the floods. “Three weeks ago, our crops looked great. We were looking at 200 bushels per acre corn and above, but now even non-flooded fields that received 10-15 inches of rain in one week might top out at 120 to 130 bushels per acre. I think we’ve learned from 1993, that rain does not always make grain,” explained Taylor.
The weather has been drier over the past week, which has helped out quite a bit, and the crop looks like it could very well be a record as USDA is predicting.
As a more upbeat follow-up to our last discussion of ethanol in the Golden State, there is this news item about how ethanol and biodiesel availability is expanding in California.
But the agricultural sector is showing a significant increase in both 
It was no surprise that the Humane Society of the United States would use the massive salmonella egg recall this week to 
The event will focus on increasing exports of both coarse grains and the emerging growth market of the ethanol co-product dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS), and features an array of international leaders in ag commerce, including Dr. Bob Thompson with the National Center for Food and Agricultural Policy and Gary Blumenthal, president and CEO of 
“The corn crop, as of August 22, already passing the halfway mark for dented. That’s pretty remarkable for this early in the season,” Rippey says. In fact, 54 percent of the crop is dented, 