That’s the question National Corn Growers CEO Rick Tolman presented to the media during a press conference in Washington DC on Wednesday, pointing to the front page article on ethanol and corn prices in the Washington Post as being the latest example of making ethanol out to be the ax murderer. “There’s a lot of misinformation, slanted information that is just inaccurate,” Tolman said. “While we do have some role in higher food prices in the corn industry, we are certainly closer to Little Bo Peep than the ax murderer.”
Tolman pointed out the importance of the US corn industry, the dramatic increases in yields and production and the fact that prices for petroleum products have a much greater impact on food prices than corn does.
“What do corn prices have to do with food riots in China and Pakistan and India over rice?” Tolman asked. “Absolutely nothing. There is no connection to rice production around the world with biofuels production in the United States. Absolutely none.”
Tolman blamed the disinformation in the media on a very clever marketing campaign by those with deep pockets. “If you want to know who the real ax murderer is slashing our grocery food budget, look at $4 a gallon gasoline, look at $120 a barrel oil,” Tolman said.
The media was very interested in hearing the story that agriculture and the ethanol industry had to tell about food prices during a press conference Wednesday at the National Press Club.
Former Agriculture Secretary John Block, National Corn Growers CEO Rick Tolman, National Farmers Union president Tom Buis and Renewable Fuels Association CEO Bob Dinneen gave opening statements about the facts on food price increases and entertained about 40 minutes of questions from reporters present and on the phone. They covered nearly every topic on the food and fuel waterfront and gave highly informative answers to probing and intelligent questions from the press. Hopefully this will translate into some balance in reporting about the food versus fuel issue.
Listen to the entire one hour plus press conference here:
The development of alternative feedstocks for ethanol doesn’t mean that corn ethanol will be thrown under the bus, according to Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer.
Speaking to farm broadcasters in Washington on Tuesday, Schafer talked about the importance of ethanol today. “We’ve passed Renewable Fuels Standards in this country that are important,” he said. “We cannot meet those demands with (only) corn-driven ethanol as a feed stock,” But, he says corn ethanol is a “stepping stone” to get to alternative feed stocks. “If we pull it back, we can do all the research in the world and come up with new ideas for alternative feed stocks and you won’t be able to do anything with them. So we need to make sure that we continue to develop the ethanol industry based on a corn feed stock.”
Does that mean we throw corn ethanol under the bus after the cellulosic ethanol comes on line?
“Absolutely not,” Schafer says. “What happens then is you have alternative feed stocks, the market place chooses the feed stock, the market place sets the price, that’s what made this country great.”
Ken McCauley of White Cloud, Kansas says the figures used in the article published in Sunday’s Kansas City Star, for example, were too vague. He says they didn’t properly represent real data and were spun in such a way to make ethanol a culprit… a culprit of rising food prices, rising gas prices and lower fuel economy.
Laura McNamara was at the Roadrunner Turbo Indy 300 Sunday and did an excellent interview with Ken that you can listen to here:
Ken is pictured here with Team Ethanol Driver Ryan Hunter-Reay, Ethanol Promotion and Information Council Executive Director Toni Nuernberg and EPIC Director of Operations Robert White.
National Corn Growers Association CEO Rick Tolman was honored at the 2008 Agribusiness Leader of the Year for being “a driving force in solidifying demand for corn.”
According to NAMA:
The growing ethanol market is a real win for corn farmers and rural America. Today, ethanol has become a symbol of corn grower success. And it is the efforts surrounding the many successes of corn producers in 2007 that distinguish Rick among his peers.
The Renewable Fuels Association last week released the results of an economic analysis conducted by John Urbanchuk of LECG, LLC, a global expert services consulting firm. The report focused on the impact of the U.S. ethanol industry in 2007.
The analysis determined that the “increase in economic activity resulting from ongoing production and construction of new capacity supported the creation of 238,541 jobs in all sectors of the economy during 2007. These include more than 46,000 jobs in America’s manufacturing sector — American jobs making ethanol from grain produced by American farmers.” The goods and services required to produce the estimated 6.5 billion gallons in 2007 added $47.6 billion to the Gross Domestic Product and raised household incomes by $12.3 billion.
NCGA President Ron Litterer got to share the stage with his counterparts in soybeans and wheat at the Commodity Classic in Nashville. They’re pictured as follows: John Hoffman, American Soybean Association, Ron Litterer, NCGA and John Thaemert, National Association of Wheat Growers.
The three took part in an annual discussion led by this year’s moderator John Phipps, U.S. Farm Report.
John starts out wondering how in the world these three guys got so lucky as to be President this year when we’ve got such fantastic market prices. It’s a lively discussion which I hope you’ll enjoy.
New Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer made his first appearance before corn, soybean and wheat growers at Commodity Classic on Friday.
Schafer talked about the farm bill of course and expressed optimism that we’re getting closer to an agreement. We can only hope!
You can listen to Secretary Schafer’s speech here:
USDA released a document (Word doc) “developed from Administration analysis of impacts to current USDA programs - in the absence of enactment of a new farm bill or an extension of the 2002 farm bill past March 15, 2008.”
Before attending Commodity Classic in Nashville, NCGA’s CEO Rick Tolman spoke to the National Ethanol Conference in Orlando, FL. Like many of the speakers he dealt with the irresponsible reporting in the media about ethanol head on with plenty of facts and figures. In fact, I think Rick gave the most comprehensive look at the reality of this segment of the biofuels industry in terms that even a slow witted journalist can understand.
You can listen to Rick’s speech here:
Rick used some great graphics to help make his points.
I really liked this one showing how far we’ve come in this country at increasing the number of bushels grown per acre. It shows that in 1944 we got 2.8 billion bushels of corn off of 85 million acres while just last year we got 13.1 billion bushels off the same number of acres. His point being that we’re getting more efficient in corn production. He also pointed out that companies like Monsanto are projecting that we’ll double the number of bushels harvested per acre in the near future as technology continues to develop. At the same time the amount of inputs like chemicals and fertilizer is decreasing.
I especially love his analysis of water use for growing corn. It’s too bad that when people try to use that topic as a negative they neglect to mention that the majority of it is rain that falls on the ground regardless of what’s being grown on it. I’ve heard Rick speak many times and I think this is one of the best presentations I’ve heard him give. It’s worth a listen which is why I have it recorded for you
This week I paid a visit to the world headquarters of the National Corn Growers Association to meet with Mimi Ricketts and newcomer Jennifer Crichton. I got to see Rick’s new ride in person and took my own picture.
While I was there I recorded a short discussion with them about the whole Corn Commentary project. I think you’ll find it especially interesting in you work in communications at a company or other ag organization. For example, we talked about why Corn Commentary was created and if it’s accomplishing the objective. As Mimi says, it has allowed NCGA to write about some topics that wouldn’t fit on the NCGA.com website.
Another great feature is commenting. Many people have left comments here. That really helps make this an interactive website and that’s the intent.
If you’d like to hear our conversation, feel free:
That’s the question National Corn Growers CEO Rick Tolman presented to the media during a press conference in Washington DC on Wednesday, pointing to the front page article on ethanol and corn prices in the Washington Post as being the latest example of making ethanol out to be the ax murderer. “There’s a lot of misinformation, slanted information that is just inaccurate,” Tolman said. “While we do have some role in higher food prices in the corn industry, we are certainly closer to Little Bo Peep than the ax murderer.”
The media was very interested in hearing the story that agriculture and the ethanol industry had to tell about food prices during a press conference Wednesday at the National Press Club.
Speaking to farm broadcasters in Washington on Tuesday, Schafer talked about the importance of ethanol today. “We’ve passed Renewable Fuels Standards in this country that are important,” he said. “We cannot meet those demands with (only) corn-driven ethanol as a feed stock,” But, he says corn ethanol is a “stepping stone” to get to alternative feed stocks. “If we pull it back, we can do all the research in the world and come up with new ideas for alternative feed stocks and you won’t be able to do anything with them. So we need to make sure that we continue to develop the ethanol industry based on a corn feed stock.”
The recent criticism of ethanol doesn’t sit too well with the chairman of the 
Corn was a winner at the 
When ethanol comes to town, things change.
The analysis determined that the “increase in economic activity resulting from ongoing production and construction of new capacity supported the creation of 238,541 jobs in all sectors of the economy during 2007. These include more than 46,000 jobs in America’s manufacturing sector — American jobs making ethanol from grain produced by American farmers.” The goods and services required to produce the estimated 6.5 billion gallons in 2007 added $47.6 billion to the Gross Domestic Product and raised household incomes by $12.3 billion.
NCGA President Ron Litterer got to share the stage with his counterparts in soybeans and wheat at the Commodity Classic in Nashville. They’re pictured as follows: John Hoffman, American Soybean Association, Ron Litterer, NCGA and John Thaemert, National Association of Wheat Growers.
New Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer made his first appearance before corn, soybean and wheat growers at Commodity Classic on Friday. 
Before attending Commodity Classic in Nashville, NCGA’s CEO Rick Tolman spoke to the National Ethanol Conference in Orlando, FL. Like many of the speakers he dealt with the irresponsible reporting in the media about ethanol head on with plenty of facts and figures. In fact, I think Rick gave the most comprehensive look at the reality of this segment of the biofuels industry in terms that even a slow witted journalist can understand.
we’re getting more efficient in corn production. He also pointed out that companies like Monsanto are projecting that we’ll double the number of bushels harvested per acre in the near future as technology continues to develop. At the same time the amount of inputs like chemicals and fertilizer is decreasing.