NASCAR team owner and former racer Richard Childress, pictured here with National Corn Growers Association vice president Garry Niemeyer of Illinois and Growth Energy CEO Tom Buis, was at FPS to talk about the partnership between the racing series and American Ethanol.

The agriculture connection is what made Richard want to be a part of the American Ethanol NASCAR partnership when the series started using a 15% ethanol blend this year, since he is a farmer himself. “I’m a huge supporter of everything we do in America, from our farmers to our military,” he said. “This country has to quit depending on so much foreign energy and resources. We gotta do better.”

He says that NASCAR has had no problems making the transition to 15% ethanol fuel and next year they will go to fuel injection. “The fuel injection and the American Ethanol is really going to work out great,” Richard says.

Listen to my interview with Richard here. Richard Childress and American Ethanol

Meanwhile, over at the Illinois Corn Growers exhibit, the Illinois Family Farmers NASCAR Nationwide Series driver Kenny Wallace was signing autographs and doing interviews. Kenny was blown away by the Farm Progress Show. “This is like our Daytona 500! I’ve never seen anything like it,” he said in an interview with Chuck Zimmerman.

Kenny is proud to be the Family Farmer American Ethanol spokesperson. “Farmers make me feel good,” he said. “Hundreds of farmers notice me, stop me or they come by booth 250 and they say thank you so much for putting up for us and that really humbles me,” he added.

The next big race for Kenny will be Chicagoland on September 17.

Listen to Chuck’s interview with Kenny here. NASCAR driver Kenny Wallace

2011 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

Boat racers from coast to coast gathered this past weekend in the ethanol-producing town of Garnett, Kansas to speed around Cedar Valley Reservoir running ten percent ethanol fuel (E10) at the National Boat Racing Association (NBRA) “Garnett Ethanol Hydroplane Nationals.” The Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) partnered with NBRA earlier this year to help dispel concerns about the use of ethanol fuel in boat engines. The partnership includes the use of the RFA “Fueled with Pride” logo on signage around the racing events, as well as on all the racing boats and haulers.

“This was an opportunity to tell our story that E10 blends will run in any commercial type of vehicle, whether boats, auto or whatever,” said Steve Gardner, general manager of Garnett’s ethanol plant East Kansas Agri-Energy located in Garnett. “If this will run in racing boats, it will run in any type of boats.”

Garnett is also home to the Kansas Corn Growers Association and they joined with representatives from RFA and East Kansas Agri-Energy at the race where they provided fan bags with information and answered questions about the use of ethanol in marine engines.

Listen to my interview with Steve Gardner here: East Kansas Agri-Energy at NBRA Boat Race

All of the boats that race in NBRA competitions around the country this year have to prove they are using 10 percent ethanol fuel in order to be eligible for additional prize money in the race. “We test all the fuel before the race and then the top three entries in any class are tested when they come in to make sure they are running ethanol,” said NBRA president Dan Crummett.

The NBRA races include a number of different classes of hydroplanes and runabouts with stock and modified outboards that run as fast as 96 miles per hour. Crummett says most of the issues that boaters experience when using ethanol-blended fuel can be addressed with better maintenance. “Any fuel will degrade over not a long period of time once the oil is mixed in it,” he says, which is why it’s so important for boaters to avoid leaving fuel set n the tank for an extended time.

Listen to my interview with Dan Crummett here: NBRA President Dan Crummett

Here’s a little video montage of representatives from the town of Garnett and the Renewable Fuels Association welcoming the racers and some race footage.

See photos from the race here: NBRA Ethanol Boat Race

“This is the kick off and we’ve been waiting for it to come,” said National Corn Growers Association president Bart Schott of North Dakota about the race on Sunday which featured the American Ethanol paint job on Clint Bowyer’s No. 33 Chevrolet and on the track. “NASCAR has an 80 million fan base that is getting some real positive messages on burning a higher blend of ethanol.” American Ethanol is a partnership between the corn growers, the ethanol industry and NASCAR, and all series events started running this season on a 15 percent ethanol blend.

Listen to an interview with Bart and NCGA chairman Darrin Ihnen of South Dakota here:

About 1200 farmers and ethanol producers from all over the Midwest were at the Kansas Speedway on Sunday to cheer on Bowyer, following his first place win Saturday in the Camping World Truck Series. Bowyer’s team owner Richard Childress visited the American Ethanol hospitality tent to talk about his support for agriculture and the domestically produced fuel.

“I’m a farmer myself and I understand the livelihood of farmers and I think it’s great for America what they are doing to help us not to have to depend on as much foreign energy,” he said. “I hope some day we can run it all on ethanol.”

Childress believes there is a good possibility that NASCAR could go to an even higher ethanol blend than the 15% started this year. “We tested the 30 and it ran really well but I think NASCAR wants to ease into it with fuel injection coming,” he added.

Listen to Childress’ comments here:

See all the race photos here: American Ethanol at NASCAR Sprint Cup STP 400

First, NASCAR driver Kenny Wallace will be driving the American Ethanol #09 car, with sponsorship by corn growers and Marquis Energy, in the Nationwide Series STP 300 at Chicagoland Speedway on Saturday. Ethanol plant president Mark Marquis says the partnership between corn growers, the ethanol industry and NASCAR is a great opportunity to get in front of American consumers who will feel more confident about putting higher blends of ethanol in their cars after seeing how well it performs in the race cars. Mark hosted a get-together with Kenny Wallace at the Marquis Energy plant on Thursday.

Then on Sunday afternoon, Clint Bowyer will be driving a special-edition American Ethanol paint scheme on his No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet in the Sprint Cup Series STP 400 at Kansas Speedway. Clint has been talking up ethanol in interviews this week, like this story in the Kansas City Star where he is quoted as saying, “I don’t know if you’ve seen the price of fuel lately, but this whole country needs to be paying attention to this ethanol thing, because it’s a good way to create independence from foreign oil.” How true!

“It’s truly an honor to have American Ethanol on the No. 33 Chevrolet this weekend,” said Bowyer. “Born and raised in Kansas, I support American farmers as they strive to develop energy independence for our country and I look forward to representing American Ethanol both on and off the track this weekend at Kansas Speedway.”

Race fans will also see the American Ethanol logo along the backstretch wall of the 1.5-mile Kansas Speedway on Sunday that will draw attention to the partnership between ethanol and NASCAR, which is using Sunoco Green E-15 racing fuel this season. We’ll have lots more from that race for you next week here on Corn Commentary.

Go green!

The award, given by Truth about Trade and Technology (TATT), seeks to recognize “strong leadership, vision, and resolve in advancing the rights of all farmers to choose the technology and tools that will improve the quality, quantity, and availability of agricultural products around the world.”

You can listen to my interview with Gabriela here:

TATT Global Farmer To Farmer Roundtable Photo Album

Our host was Bill Couser. Bill conducted a fascinating presentation about his marriage of row crop farming (corn/soybeans), livestock production and ethanol production! You can see a portion of his explanation in the video below. He used a long table to display all the products he produces starting with an ear of corn and winding up with ethanol (2.81 gal/bushel of corn) as well as by-products like DDGS and ultimately fine quality beef. I loved his description about the whole food vs. fuel debate, “It’s rubbish!”

TATT Global Farmer To Farmer Roundtable Photo Album

I spoke with Pam before the afternoon roundtable session got underway. She says this discussion has been great for her because farmers share a lot of the same issues and concerns around the world. She thought this morning’s town hall meeting was a good one with an audience that understands that there are a lot of definitions for terms like sustainability. She says that the point was made that farmers are working hard to be productive while maintaining a viable business and taking care of their land and other resources. She hopes that the farmers visiting the United States will take away the idea that they have to be able to operate in an atmosphere where their government policy, the public and consumers work with farmers. In other words, it’s not an “us vs. them” situation.

You can listen to my interview with Pam here:

TATT Global Farmer To Farmer Roundtable Photo Album

Each year, up to 20 farmers from around the world will gather together and participate in the invitation-only event. Working in conjunction with the World Food Prize Symposium, these farmers will share their personal experiences as they discuss current issues in agriculture, including access to technology, trade barriers and other matters relating to the future of international agriculture and food production.

I’ll be attending this event which takes place today and tomorrow and provides updates with interviews of the participants. This morning the agenda kicks off with a Global Virtual Town Hall session on the campus of Iowa State University. This is part of the Biodiversity World Tour put on by Croplife International.

 The most recent attack on corn-based ethanol provides a great example of how these coordinated efforts are staged. The current outbreak, which began Sunday, hit the nation’s top tier opinion leaders on Sunday and Monday and began showing up in large regional daily newspapers like the Des Moines Register and the Columbus Dispatch the last two days. Many local papers can be expected to jump on the passing train by week’s end bringing yet another 6 day ethanol drubbing to an end.

 Editorials like this don’t happen in a vacuum, especially the main Op-ed pieces with no names attached because they represent the “official opinion” of the newspaper. In fact most editorial writers rarely leave the paper to venture into the real world to form their very articulate opinions.

 Most sit in their secluded offices each day and read others opinions, research the internet and read other papers trolling for ideas. However, most also hold court each day where the powerful and the influential come calling with their hat in their hand and try to persuade the editor to write a piece reflecting their position.

 If you happen to work at a large East Coast news outlet you have a tremendous amount of power because these folks generally start all news cycles and take the lead on deciding which issues get ink or airtime. Some people (yes, I know a few) make a good living professionally coaching CEOs in business and even government officials on how to best present and sell their message. Most have a news background and they use their contacts to grant attain access for others and grease the skids for their client.

 Why would someone go to such great lengths and even spend huge sums on Public Relations/Public Affairs companies to help them hone their talking points and put together professional information packets? Because if you hit a home run with someone like the Wall Street Journal or the Washington Post, competing editors elsewhere will scramble to get something out as soon as possible and hope nobody notices they didn’t have it first. A sort of race begins. In this race it is ok to be second or even third but just like in the Olympics…nobody cares who got fourth place.

 An ad in one of these publications can cost $40,000 to $100,000 and quite honestly people are more likely to read the Op-ed pages of most newspapers. This is a high-value piece of journalistic real estate. Now, keeping the aforementioned flu effect in the news business in mind, compound that cost times space in six of the largest newspapers in the county and dozens of influential dailies from coast to coast. And things are getting worse. As the print industry struggles with the economy, many newspapers are cutting editorial staffs, meaning more and more papers are paying for services where they can all access and run the very same editorials verbatim.

 Is the light going on yet? So why doesn’t everyone do this? Because it is not a low stakes game.  In order to have a profound effect the process is expanded and repeated over and over. Experts are hired to reinforce the company’s position. Interviews are shopped to cable news outlets and talk shows. In a full out assault like the one hitting ethanol the last few years millions of dollars have been spent. So who is writing the checks? Stay tuned. The Brazilian sugar cane industry is next.

“The Lung Walk at the Milwaukee County Zoo is a great family event for a worthwhile cause that calls attention to the need for cleaner air and corn-based E85 ethanol fuel is recognized as the Clean Air Choice of the American Lung Association,” says Team Captain Nancy Kavazanjian, a corn grower from Beaver Dam. “Walking as the Green E85 Team is the perfect way to show people that our locally grown and produced ethanol fuel is helping clean up Wisconsin’s air quality while it also helps boost the state economy.”

The walk is a major fund-raising event that helps the ALA, the oldest nationwide voluntary health agency in the United States, fight lung disease through education, community service, public policy and research. As part of the year’s promotional efforts supported by Wisconsin’s corn checkoff, the Wisconsin Corn Promotion Board is the official sponsor of the Lung Walk’s Green E85 Team and paid for the commemorative T-shirts shirts for all team members. Badger State Ethanol, Didion Ethanol, United Ethanol and the UWGP ethanol plant, along with several individual corn growers made major donations to the Green E85 Team effort, helping meet the team fund raising goal of $1,500.