President Obama announced his National Rural Tour yesterday during an interview with National Association of Farm Broadcasting past president Michelle Rook with WNAX Radio in Yankton, SD. “Over the next few weeks and months, top officials from my administration will fan out across the country to hold a series of discussions on how we can strengthen rural America,” Obama said.
Vice President Joe Biden, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, and Federal Communications Commission Chair Julius Genakowski kicked off the “rural road trip” today in Pennsylvania, announcing $4 billion in loans and grants to bring broadband internet service to rural communities. Other stops are planned in Alaska, Louisiana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin.
During her interview, Michelle asked the president about renewable fuels. “Obviously, I come from a farm state - Illinois - and ethanol has been a big boon for a lot of rural communities,” he said. “But we also are recognizing the key for us is to move into the next generation of biofuels, how can we use wood chips and refuse and switchgrass and how can we improve the efficiency of first generation biofuels. Farmers are going to be critical to that entire process.”
Michelle also asked President Obama about a number of other issues, including the climate change bill, whether farmers should be concerned about increasing regulations, and how the government might be able to help the livestock industry.
Listen to Michelle’s entire interview with the president here:
Energy Secretary Steven Chu was in Des Moines Monday to announce more than $16 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding for energy efficiency and renewable energy projects in Iowa during a news conference with Governor Chet Culver. But his announcement took a back seat to some of the comments about ethanol he made during Q and A with reporters.
First, Chu indicated that he supports approval of the waiver that would allow up to 15 percent ethanol blends for standard vehicles currently being considered by the federal government.
“I don’t want to prejudge what they’re going to find, but if the existing automobile fleet can handle 15 percent, I would say let’s make that a target and go to 15 percent,” Chu said. “This is very important for decreasing our oil independence.”
Chu also suggested that car manufacturers ought to make all new automobiles flex-fuel capable. “I’ve been told it costs about $100 in gaskets and fuel lines to turn a car so that it can go all the way to E85,” Chu said. “But a new car , it would only cost $100 out of $15,000. Wouldn’t it be nice to put in those fuel lines and gaskets so that we can use any ratio we wanted?” He said that while mandating that companies make all vehicles flex-fuel is “beginning to be discussed” by the administration, they first want to “see about whether the current fleet can take 15 percent or 13 percent ethanol.”
When it came to the issue of indirect land use change and how corn ethanol can measure up using the calculations proposed by EPA under the Renewable Fuels Standard for lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions, Chu had to do some dancing. “The Obama administration has made it very clear that they would rather get to where we need to get to in terms of decreasing our carbon footprint by legislation not by regulatory things,” Chu said when questioned about the matter. He then launched into a discussion about the potential cellulosic sources for biofuels hold for farmers, “which Iowa can grow as easily and use all the agricultural waste.”
“Iowa has tremendous productivity in corn, but if you look at some of the grasses that one can grow that don’t require the fertilizer, the potential is even greater,” he said. “The trouble is we don’t have the technology today to turn cellulose into biofuel.”
Asked more specifically about the EPA proposal, Chu said, “It’s out for peer review and we’ll see how it plays out.” That comment prompted Rep. Leonard Boswell (D-IA), a member of the House Agriculture Committee who was also at the press conference, to say to the secretary, “I hear what you’re saying, I’ve heard it loud and clear, and we’re very concerned about it and there’s a fairly large group that’s making this come to the table for discussion.”
Here is an audio file with Chu’s answers to some of the questions posed. The audio from the reporters was not audible, but you can pretty much figure out what they were asking.
I visited the National Corn Growers Association office this week to catch up with some of the staff. My visit included chatting with Jamey Cline who recently joined the staff to work in the biofuels and business development areas.
We visited about the current status of the industry and what the priorities are now for NCGA. I thought it was interesting that even though organizations like NCGA have had to devote time and resources to responding to a lot of the misinformation campaigns about ethanol, they’ve learned a lot through the process. Jamey says “We found just how much of an environmental steward the farmer really is. We found just how environmentally friendly ethanol is. And we found out we really didn’t cause much increase in cost at the grocery store.” He says it was nice to have that confirmed by sound science.
Some of the current projects Jamey says NCGA is working on include research projects on water use, environmental impact of fertilizer, implementation of RFS2 regulations, hypoxia and food prices. That sounds like a lot of work but when concluded it will really add to the knowledge base that the industry and consumers have about corn production and use.
How many ways can you define sustainability? What does it mean to you? I’m beginning to think the list is endless. During a conference I attended this week I heard three very prominent people offer their definition during a round table discussion. This was at the Alltech Symposium where the theme was The Sustainability Principle. The panelists at this session each took a turn answering the question, “How do you define sustainability? There were also asked to put that in terms of how the audience should be interested in it. Anyone who is in agriculture, including corn growers, needs to know how people are looking at this issue since it will be important as new legislation and regulations come about as a result of it.
Our first panelist to tackle this question was Lutz Goedde, Deputy Director, Agricultural Development, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He says the Foundation he works for looks at sustainability “through a very different lens compared to many other organizations.” He then proceeded to say that there are a billion people in the world who live on under a dollar a day and described what that is like. He says that agriculture is the primary means for most of them to get food and earn a living. He says they follow the Bill and Melinda sustainability philosophy that “every person on the planet has the right to live a healthy and productive life.” Next he says that there are normally three dimensions to sustainability which are economic, social and environmental.
Listen to Goedde’s reply here:
Next up was Dr. Michael Boehlje, Professor, Dept. of Agricultural Economics and the Center for Food and Agricultural Business, Purdue University. He said we could look at sustainability from a traditional farm management standpoint of carrying capacity that recognizes current and future capacity on a global basis and deals with absorbing waste in terms of the economic or production activity you’re involved in. He says that although government is involved in this issue, it will be consumers who “will be the ultimate in terms of whether in fact sustainability practices are adopted and those who adopt them are compensated for them.”
Listen to Boehlje’s reply here:
Finally we heard an answer to this question from Philip Wilkinson, Order of the British Empire, Executive Director, 2 Sisters Food Group. He said that the definition he would use is the one used by the United Nations but since that has already been brought up by earlier speakers he composed a slightly different one. He says, “A sustainable agricultural system is one which maximizes production by increases in yield while minimizing environmental impact and does not compromise animal welfare.” He says farmers are the logical custodians of the land who can accomplish this. He also quoted a former United Kingdom Minister who summed it us as, “Don’t cheat your children.”
Listen to Wilkinson’s reply here:
So there you have it. Three more ways to look at this issue. Now if we could all just agree on a common definition . . . You can find NCGA CEO Rick Tolman’s definition here.
Representatives of agribusiness in St. Louis pitched the importance of the Show Me state and the Bio Belt at the 2009 World Ag Congress Tuesday.
Novus International, the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA), the American Soybean Association (ASA), and the University of Missouri were among those touting Missouri’s unique agribusiness climate and characteristics. NCGA Director of Biotechnology and Economic Analysis Nathan Fields said they were proud to call St. Louis home, which gives them a grassroots perspective.
I talked with Nathan about the World Ag Congress and how the corn growers are working on the missions of sustainability and feeding the world. “We feel that U.S. corn production is a model system for the world,” he said. “We we have the greatest efficiency in production and we think that we have a lot of information that we can impart internationally to promote the technology that we use to increase productivity.”
House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson (D-MN) expressed frustration over indirect land use change penalties against biofuels in the EPA’s proposed rulemaking for the Renewable Fuels Standard during a hearing Wednesday on Capitol Hill.
“You are going to kill off the biofuels industry before it ever gets started. You’re in bed with the oil companies,” Peterson said to Margo Oge, head of EPA’s Office of Transportation and Air Quality. “Why would you put indirect costs on corn and soybeans and not put it on oil? What about all the indirect of protecting the oil shipping lanes in the Middle East? This is ridiculous what’s going on here.”
“We’re off on some peer review, why aren’t we peer reviewing all these other things? Because people don’t like corn ethanol,” said Peterson.
“I want this message to be sent back down the street,” Peterson continued. “I’m off the train. I will not support any kind of climate change bill. I don’t care. Even if you fix this. Because I don’t trust anybody anymore. I’ve had it.”
Listen to Peterson’s statement here:
Peterson’s vocal opposition to the Obama administration’s priority for climate change legislation prompted a response from Heather Zichal, White House deputy advisor on energy and climate change. “There should be no question - the Obama Administration is committed to renewable fuels,” she said in a statement.
Yesterday’s press conference with three members of the Obama cabinet about the administration’s commitment to biofuels offered some refreshingly encouraging words for our nation’s agricultural industry.
Probably the best words of praise came from Energy Secretary Steven Chu, who noted that agriculture is one of the nation’s greatest resources for energy. “We have incredible capacity not only to grow the food we need and to have dynamic exports, we can also grow a considerable amount of energy,” said Chu. (Take that, fuel versus foodies!)
Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lisa Jackson also noted the important role agriculture has in supplying the nation’s energy needs. “In the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA), Congress recognized the need for a homegrown fuel source,” said Jackson. “Every year, we send billions of dollars overseas, often to unfriendly places. With renewable fuels, we can send those billions to rural and farming communities, people who need help most in these challenging economic times.”
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack is supposed to say nice things about agriculture, but we’ll give him some credit for saying them anyway. It was especially encouraging that he got top billing in yesterday’s press conference, which was really about the release of EPA’s proposed rulemaking for the Renewable Fuels Standard. It indicates that the Obama administration really does recognize the critical role agriculture plays in the biofuels industry, as Vilsack stated in his comments. “This reflects President Obama’s commitment to rural America. It merges and marries together rural economic development with agriculture to create clean jobs and clean opportunity. It is a firm commitment in making this industry an integral part of this new 21st century American economy,” said Vilsack. “It provides additional income opportunities for American farmers and ranchers, jobs for those who live in rural communities and energy security for every single American.”
Issues affecting corn growers were major topics of discussion at the annual National Association of Farm Broadcasting Washington Watch Issues Forum this week in the nation’s capitol.
Among those on hand to be interviewed by more than 30 farm broadcast journalists were (pictured left to right) National Corn Growers Association Directors of Public Policy Rod Snyder and Jessica Bennett, Ohio Corn Growers Executive Director Dwayne Siekman and NCGA Vice President of Public Policy Jon Doggett. They discussed a number of important issues, including the new ACRE program, higher ethanol blends, the Clean Water Act, and the impact of climate change legislation on agriculture.
The issues forum was held on Monday, the first day of sign up for the 2008 farm bill’s Average Crop Revenue Election (ACRE) Program, and Jon answered lots of questions about that new program.
Listen to an interview with Jon by Chuck Zimmerman of Agwired.com:
Also at the event was Mark Lambert with the Illinois Corn Growers, who serves as director of the new Corn Farmers Coalition, an alliance which includes the National Corn Growers Association and 10 state corn associations. He is pictured here being interviewed by Bob Bosold of WAXX/WAYY Radio in Altoona, WI.
Mark says the goal of the coalition is to bring a very clearly defined message to Washington DC, injecting facts into the debate about issues that impact agriculture. “What we found out is that there are a lot of decisions being made affecting our industry right now and they don’t even understand that family farmers still exist,” Mark says.
Farm Foundation hosted another segment in their “Transition To A Bio Economy” conference series last week in Washington DC, focusing this time on “Global Trade and Policy Issues.” There were a number of very interesting presentations made at the conference, but here is just a sampling that provided commentary relevant to corn.
Seth Meyer with the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute (FAPRI) discussed how biofuels policies are affecting commodity prices, trade and exports. “I think the last couple of years of proved that there are a lot of moving parts here, there are a lot of other things affecting export volume,” Meyer says. “It’s important to put biofuels policies in context.”
He noted that it’s difficult to predict the future for biofuels policy and how it might impact producers. “Things are very much in flux,” said Meyers. “There’s potentially a lot of policy risk for producers.”
Chuck Zimmerman interviewed Seth at the conference:
Another interesting presentation at the conference had to do with the impact of biofuels policy on global poverty.
Tom Hertel of Purdue University says they conducted an international study of 16 developing countries and the impact of biofuels production on the poverty level and found that “it’s a very complex issue” because higher food prices may have a greater or lesser impact depending on whether the poverty is located in more urban or rural areas. Since more poor live in rural areas, when agricultural prices are higher, they can actually benefit from higher returns.
You can listen to an interview with Tom here:
More coverage from the Farm Foundation conference can be found here on Agwired.com.
Yet another study, released today, confirms that corn-based ethanol helps reduce greenhouse gas significantly (39% today; up to 55% in 2015) and provides more energy than it takes to make it (42% more today; nearly double by 2015).
“The GHG emissions savings from ethanol production and use have more than doubled between 1995 and the projected level in 2015. This indicates the danger of making policy decision(s) based on historical data without taking into account learning experiences and the potential gains that can be expected as industries develop. The GHG emissions reductions in 2015 from corn ethanol would qualify as advanced biofuels under proposed US regulations.” (emphasis mine)
According to the news release, the paper found that GHG reductions have grown from approximately 26% in 1995 to over 39% today while projected GHG reductions from ethanol will reach nearly 55% in 2015 with the advent of new technology, process efficiencies and improved yields. Ethanol’s energy balance continues to improve as well, the paper found. For 2005, grain ethanol’s energy balance ratio was estimated at 1:1.42, meaning every unit of energy used to produce ethanol returned 1.42 units of usable energy to the consumer. By 2015, the energy balance ratio is expected to be 1:1.93, a 55% increase in energy efficiency in just 10 years.
You can download the entire report here. It was commissioned by IEA Bioenergy, an organization set up in 1978 by the International Energy Agency (IEA) with the aim of improving cooperation and information exchange between countries that have national programs in bioenergy research, development and deployment.
Post Update - Here is some audio from the press conference today announcing the report findings.
President Obama announced his National Rural Tour yesterday during an interview with National Association of Farm Broadcasting past president Michelle Rook with WNAX Radio in Yankton, SD. “Over the next few weeks and months, top officials from my administration will fan out across the country to hold a series of discussions on how we can strengthen rural America,” Obama said.
Chu also suggested that car manufacturers ought to make all new automobiles flex-fuel capable. “I’ve been told it costs about $100 in gaskets and fuel lines to turn a car so that it can go all the way to E85,” Chu said. “But a new car , it would only cost $100 out of $15,000. Wouldn’t it be nice to put in those fuel lines and gaskets so that we can use any ratio we wanted?” He said that while mandating that companies make all vehicles flex-fuel is “beginning to be discussed” by the administration, they first want to “see about whether the current fleet can take 15 percent or 13 percent ethanol.”
I visited the National Corn Growers Association office this week to catch up with some of the staff. My visit included chatting with Jamey Cline who recently joined the staff to work in the biofuels and business development areas. 
Our first panelist to tackle this question was Lutz Goedde, Deputy Director, Agricultural Development, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He says the Foundation he works for looks at sustainability “through a very different lens compared to many other organizations.” He then proceeded to say that there are a billion people in the world who live on under a dollar a day and described what that is like. He says that agriculture is the primary means for most of them to get food and earn a living. He says they follow the Bill and Melinda sustainability philosophy that “every person on the planet has the right to live a healthy and productive life.” Next he says that there are normally three dimensions to sustainability which are economic, social and environmental. 
Next up was Dr. Michael Boehlje, Professor, Dept. of Agricultural Economics and the Center for Food and Agricultural Business, Purdue University. He said we could look at sustainability from a traditional farm management standpoint of carrying capacity that recognizes current and future capacity on a global basis and deals with absorbing waste in terms of the economic or production activity you’re involved in. He says that although government is involved in this issue, it will be consumers who “will be the ultimate in terms of whether in fact sustainability practices are adopted and those who adopt them are compensated for them.” 
Finally we heard an answer to this question from Philip Wilkinson, Order of the British Empire, Executive Director, 2 Sisters Food Group. He said that the definition he would use is the one used by the United Nations but since that has already been brought up by earlier speakers he composed a slightly different one. He says, “A sustainable agricultural system is one which maximizes production by increases in yield while minimizing environmental impact and does not compromise animal welfare.” He says farmers are the logical custodians of the land who can accomplish this. He also quoted a former United Kingdom Minister who summed it us as, “Don’t cheat your children.”
Representatives of agribusiness in St. Louis pitched the importance of the Show Me state and the Bio Belt at the 2009 
I talked with Nathan about the World Ag Congress and how the corn growers are working on the missions of sustainability and feeding the world. “We feel that U.S. corn production is a model system for the world,” he said. “We we have the greatest efficiency in production and we think that we have a lot of information that we can impart internationally to promote the technology that we use to increase productivity.”
House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson (D-MN) expressed frustration over indirect land use change penalties against biofuels in the EPA’s proposed rulemaking for the Renewable Fuels Standard during a hearing Wednesday on Capitol Hill.
Probably the best words of praise came from Energy Secretary Steven Chu, who noted that agriculture is one of the nation’s greatest resources for energy. “We have incredible capacity not only to grow the food we need and to have dynamic exports, we can also grow a considerable amount of energy,” said Chu. (Take that, fuel versus foodies!)
Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lisa Jackson also noted the important role agriculture has in supplying the nation’s energy needs. “In the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA), Congress recognized the need for a homegrown fuel source,” said Jackson. “Every year, we send billions of dollars overseas, often to unfriendly places. With renewable fuels, we can send those billions to rural and farming communities, people who need help most in these challenging economic times.” 
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack is supposed to say nice things about agriculture, but we’ll give him some credit for saying them anyway. It was especially encouraging that he got top billing in yesterday’s press conference, which was really about the release of EPA’s proposed rulemaking for the Renewable Fuels Standard. It indicates that the Obama administration really does recognize the critical role agriculture plays in the biofuels industry, as Vilsack stated in his comments. “This reflects President Obama’s commitment to rural America. It merges and marries together rural economic development with agriculture to create clean jobs and clean opportunity. It is a firm commitment in making this industry an integral part of this new 21st century American economy,” said Vilsack. “It provides additional income opportunities for American farmers and ranchers, jobs for those who live in rural communities and energy security for every single American.”
Issues affecting corn growers were major topics of discussion at the annual 
Also at the event was Mark Lambert with the Illinois Corn Growers, who serves as director of the new 
Seth Meyer with the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute (FAPRI) discussed how biofuels policies are affecting commodity prices, trade and exports. “I think the last couple of years of proved that there are a lot of moving parts here, there are a lot of other things affecting export volume,” Meyer says. “It’s important to put biofuels policies in context.”
Another interesting presentation at the conference had to do with the impact of biofuels policy on global poverty.