Domestic Fuel

Wind energy is an important resource for the country, and our friends at Farm Foundation are sponsoring another important conversation on the subject.

The Farm Foundation Forum: Wind Energy Issues and Challenges will be held Tuesday, February 10, 2009 from 9 to 11 am (coffee starts at 8:30 am) at the National Press Club, 529 14th Street NW, in Washington D.C.:

Presenters will be: Ian Baring-Gould, National Renewable Energy Laboratory; Peggy Beltrone, Commissioner, Cascade County, Montana; Mark Willers, MinWind, Luverne, Minn.; and John Holt, National Rural Electric Cooperative Association.

There is no charge for attending, and everyone is invited. As always, Farm Foundation hopes to get a wide variety of opinions at this forum to make sure they’re hearing real solutions… not just everyone singing from the same page. These conversations are challenging, because these days we really need ideas that challenge the norm.

If you want to attend, please RSVP by noon CST, Friday, Feb. 6, to Mary Thompson, Farm Foundation Director of Communications, mary@farmfoundation.org.

Rural America’s infrastructure challenges cut to the heart of the six challenges outlined during this morning’s session of the Farm Foundation’s Food and Agriculture Policy Summit being held in Washington, D.C.

As you might have read on my earlier post over on AgWired.com, this morning, Farm Foundation Pres. Neil Conklin outlined the six major areas of challenges facing agriculture over the next 30 years: 1. Global financial markets and recession, 2. Global food security, 3. Global energy security, 4. Climate change, 5. Competition for natural resources, and 6. Global economic development. Gene Griffin with the Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute at North Dakota State University told the group attending today’s Farm Foundation session that a crumbling rural infrastructure, in particular, the roads, touches each one of these six challenges and threatens to make them even worse.

“The engineers will tell you [the pavements] look OK on the surface, but underneath it is starting to crumble.” Griffin says by the time the damage is clearly noticeable, it costs two to three times as opposed to normal maintenance and repair.

“Just getting the political will of people to pay for systems they want to use… but they’ve gotten used to the idea they don’t necessarily have to pay for it. And I think those are two huge problems.”

Griffin says in his home state, where rural roads are seeing a huge amount of big trucks working the biodiesel and ethanol industries and North Dakota’s burgeoning petroleum industry is also taking a toll, that infrastructure needs the funding… although it might not see the same amount of traffic a higher-density population area would see. He says if the cities want the fuels that are produced in rural areas, we need to develop a system that links the high-density traffic areas with the low-density ones.

He says it comes down to deciding if we’re going to pay for the infrastructure that will help us be more energy independent now at a lower price or at a much higher price… down the road.

Listen to my entire conversation with Gene here: Griffin1.mp3

Download the audio here.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (1.3MB)

The world’s population will grow by 33 percent by the year 2040, but the amount of farmland to feed and fuel that growing demand won’t have to grow by that same one-third… that’s what attendees at the Farm Foundation’s Food and Agriculture Policy Summit in Washington, D.C. heard this morning.

Greg Webb from Archer Daniels Midland gave that optimistic assessment as he told the group increasing efficiencies in production agriculture would help meet the growing demands while adding only a disproportional smaller amount of land to the production mix.

“Agriculture’s role is not one of conflict between food or fuel. It is one that is quite compatible. Producing more food results in more fuel being produced as well.”

Webb says more efficient practices will give farmers, who are already are being pretty efficient compared to just recent history, an even greater opportunity to produce both the food and fuel the world demands, as long policies don’t get in the way.

“We need to have policies that allow those innovations and investments express themselves.”

Webb adds Pres.-elect Obama’s new Cabinet will have a great impact on how those policies play out.

You can hear my conversation with Greg by clicking here: GregWebb1.mp3

Download the audio here.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (2.7MB)

It was a pretty amazing event today at the Farm Foundation’s Food and Agriculture Policy Summit in Washington, D.C. today.

Seven former Secretaries of Agriculture (six in-person and one by videotape) debated the future of agriculture in America, especially what the immediate future would hold for the next person to head the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

A big part of this historic, bipartisan conversation was the role of biodiesel and ethanol, as well as other sources of renewable fuels.

John Block, who served as Pres. Ronald Reagan’s Ag Chief, said there’s too much infighting within the agriculture community over renewable energy.

“We’re one family in agriculture. We shouldn’t be fighting each other. I think there’s been too much fighting in the family over this food and fuel issue.”

Block says we can’t take our eye off the ball of getting energy from all sources. He says the recent drop in oil prices won’t last.

Listen to Block’s comments here: Block1.mp3

Download the audio here. (mp3)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (1.0MB)

The Food and Agriculture Policy Summit, co-hosted by Farm Foundation and Farm Journal Media this week is focusing on the wide range of domestic and global issues facing the food system and agriculture today, including biofuels.

The summit kicks off today with the Farm Journal Forum on “What Will Change Bring? Impacts of a New Congress and Administration in the New Era of Agriculture” which continues through Wednesday. The keynote speaker for that event will be POET CEO Jeff Broin who will discuss the potential for ethanol production amid changes in Congress and the new administration of President-elect Barack Obama.

Wednesday afternoon will be a joint event between both Farm Journal and Farm Foundation – “A Conversation with the Secretaries. “We’ve invited all nine of the living past Secretaries of Agriculture to participate in a conversation to talk about what advice they might give a new secretary of agriculture and just what their perspectives are on the challenges we face today,” said Farm Foundation president Conklin. Almost all have agreed to either appear in person or provide a statement by video. They include Clifford Hardin (Nixon), Bob Bergland (Carter), John Block (Reagen), Clayton Yuetter (Bush 1), Mike Espy and Dan Glickman (Clinton) and Ann Veneman and Mike Johanns (Bush 2).

On Thursday, Farm Foundation will examine Agriculture’s Strategic Role in Feeding and Fueling a Growing World. “We will be releasing a report that looks at the challenge of the next 30 years with growing population and rising incomes around the world and the increasing demands being put on agriculture,” said Conklin.

Listen to my interview with Neil about the event here: summit-conklin.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (2.0MB)

Our friends at Farm Foundation are set to release a report next week on the challenges agriculture and the food system face in providing food, fiber and energy to a growing world over the next 30 years.

The report will come out next Thursday, Dec. 4th as part of Farm Foundation’s Food and Agriculture Policy Summit, Dec. 2-4th at the Westin Washington D.C. City Center, in the nation’s capital.

Developed with input from a diverse set of agriculture and agribusiness leaders, government agency representatives and academics, the new Farm Foundation report identifies six major challenges that may impact agriculture’s ability to provide feed, fiber and fuel to a growing world. Conference speakers will address issues within each of the six challenges.

Those conference speakers will include: former Texas Congressman Charles Stenholm; Jonathan Bryant of BASF North America; Bob Wagner of American Farmland Trust; Wallace Tyner of Purdue University; James McDonald of Bread for the World; and William Hallman, Rutgers University Food Policy Institute; Gene Griffin, Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute; and Paul Ellinger of the University of Illinois.

The summit will also feature “A Conversation with the Secretaries” on Dec. 3, when seven former U.S. Secretaries of Agriculture will spend 90 minutes discussing the challenges and opportunities facing agriculture today. Participating will be John Block, Mike Espy, Clayton Yeutter, Dan Glickman, Ann Veneman and Mike Johannes. Robert Bergland will participate through a video.

I plan to be there as well, and I’ll be blogging from the event. See you then!

Our friends at the Farm Foundation are at it again, bringing a variety of folks together to offer differing viewpoints to come up with workable solutions. Last month, I had a chance to sit in on their Transition to a Bioeconomy: Environmental and Rural Impacts Conference in St. Louis where I heard many sides of the issues facing the biodiesel and ethanol industries.

Now, the foundation, in conjunction with Farm Journal, is holding its first Food and Agriculture Policy Summit, Dec. 2nd–4th in Washington D.C., where biofuels will be a key part of the agenda:

On Dec. 4, Farm Foundation will examine long-term challenges and opportunities in the conference Agriculture’s Strategic Role: Feeding and Fueling a Growing World. This program will begin with the release of a new Farm Foundation report detailing the policy challenges and options the United States and the world will face to feed a growing world over the next 30 years.

“Experts predict the world’s population will increase 35 percent by 2050, reaching almost 9.2 billion people,” says Farm Foundation President Neil Conklin. “It is critical that we begin today to address the challenges facing the world’s food and agricultural system to provide feed, fiber and fuel for this growing world.”

On Dec. 3rd, nine former Secretaries of Agriculture are slated for a 90-minute discussion of challenges and opportunities facing agriculture today, and you can bet that biodiesel and ethanol will be a key part of that talk.

There’s still plenty of time to register with early-bird registration open until Nov. 17th. Click here for more information.

As promised, I’ve got some more material for you from Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer, who addressed attendees of the Farm Foundation’s Transition to a Bioeconomy: Environmental and Rural Impacts Conference in St. Louis, Mo.

Schafer praised Farm Foundation’s long commitment to promoting the free-form type of discussion and debate we saw at this just-concluded conference of state and federal government officials, academics and representatives of the private industry. He says this is where real solutions to the challenges that face Rural America will be found.

“I’m really pleased that USDA can play a strong part and [be] a strong collaborator in this important work.”

Schafer says we must ask the tough questions, such as how are we going to grow the feedstocks of the future, what are they going to be, where we going to grow them… and how we get those feedstocks into the biofuel supply chain.

“The science that is critical to for the trans to a new bioeconomy also demands a strong partnership as we move forward on the research arena… the federal, the land grant and the private sector research coming together for this important mission.” Schafer adds that as we make the transition, corn ethanol is the bridge to cellulosic ethanol using the infrastructure and industry established by the corn ethanol industry.

Listen to Schafer’s address to the Farm Foundation here: Schaferaddress.mp3

Download audio file here.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (10.3MB)

The recent credit crisis in the country was certainly a hot topic of conversation at today’s Farm Foundation Transition to a Bioeconomy: Environmental and Rural Development Impacts Conference here in St. Louis, Mo.

Cole Gustafson, a biofuels economist with North Dakota State University, says the current credit issues is going to make financing any venture a challenge, but he says the existing ethanol and biodiesel plants are in pretty good shape as far as financing goes.

He says any new ventures will have to make sure they have solid financial fundamentals before they’ll be approved for any loan.

“Wall Street is nervous in general,” he says. And any one interested in getting financing for a new biofuels project will have to make sure they have their financial basics in good order and might need to diversify.

Listen to my conversation with Gustafson here: Gustafson.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (1.9MB)

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer has just finished addressing the folks attending the latest Farm Foundation’s Transition to a Bioeconomy Conference going on in St. Louis, Mo.

Schafer reminded the crowd how hard the current administration has worked to promote the biofuels field in this country, and thus, how hard it had worked to help the farmers who are either directly or indirectly tied to this change to a bioeconomy.

He said that now, more than ever, we need to keep exploring new technologies and new ideas to secure our energy independence and in turn, our national security. Schafer added that ethanol and biodiesel, as well as other renewable energy sources such as wind and solar, will be key to that energy security and independence.

I’ll have some more audio from Schafer’s address to the Farm Foundation, but for now, let me give you a little bit of what he told reporters who caught him for just a few minutes before he had to head out.

I asked him about the importance of a meeting such as this, where diverse opinions are brought together to come up with a consensus as to what might be the best direction to go.

“These conferences are very important because what you get is that diverse viewpoint. And when you’re challenging one another, you end up picking up the good pieces and forging good public policy and direction.”

He added that this isn’t solely a price issue or an environmental issue or an economics issue… all must be looked at for a biofuel policy for America.

Listen to Schafer’s comment here: Schafer1.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (482.7KB)

Back at it this morning at the Farm Foundation’s Transition to a Bioeconomy: Environmental and Rural Development Impacts Conference in St. Louis, Mo. Today is another big day, as we’re hearing from another variety of speakers who bring a lot of different viewpoints to the table.

Later this morning, we’ll hear from the financial side of the issues facing Rural America as it not only faces this changing bioeconomy but the recent market turmoils as well. I’m really looking forward to that talk, and I’ll bring you some highlights as they come.

In addition, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer will talk to the group, and we’ll let you know what he has to say.

It’s this free-form back-and-forth conversation that the various stakeholders bring to this meeting that makes Farm Foundation’s format so successful. There will be
two more meetings scheduled for this coming winter and spring (2009) focusing on the global aspects of the bioeconomy and how to get extension offices throughout the nation more involved.

Of course, none of this happens without the work of many good Farm Foundation folks, including this lady, Communications Director Mary Thompson. She has been a truly valuable asset for yours truly, making sure I’ve had a place and the resources to bring you these updates. Many thanks again, Mary!

As I said, I’ll have more updates to come. Stay tuned!

The amount of water that goes into growing the corn that goes into ethanol has been a big topic of conversation between those for and against production of the green fuel. That’s why it is a topic of conversation at the Farm Foundation’s Transition to a Bioeconomy: Environmental and Rural Impacts Conference in St. Louis this week. This gathering of government officials, academics and industry leaders is designed to take on the tough questions facing Rural America as it moves to a bioeconomy.

One of the people in the ethanol/water discussion is Noel Gollehon, a senior economist with the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service. He says the amount of irrigated corn is particularly concerning.

“About 15 percent of corn that is in counties that have ethanol plants is irrigated.” He adds that it takes 2,500 gallons for a bushel of corn. Now, while a large amount of that is grown in areas that uses the natural rainfall, what is worrisome is the corn grown in the drier western plains, where it equates to 750-1,000 gallons of irrigation water for each gallon of ethanol using irrigated corn as a feedstock. He says the answer might be cellulosic ethanol. However, he says it is no panacea and might be just as damaging to finite underground water sources.

“Working through this transition (to a bioeconomy), we have to use what we have,” says Gollehon. “But as we look forward, we hope we can develop cellulosic-based ethanol that doesn’t rely on that type of crop that has to be irrigated in those environments.”

Gollehon says we’ve been irrigating in this country for about 100 years, and if we want, we can keep doing that until all the water is gone… if we want to go down that route. But he believes that conversations, such as this one at the Farm Foundation’s conference, coupled with new technologies will get people to look at longer-term sustainability.

Hear more of my conversation with Gollehon here: Gollehon.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (3.0MB)

You don’t have to agree to come up with agreeable solutions… that seems to be the theme for the latest Farm Foundation Transition to a Bioeconomy Conference.

This is the third in a series of these Farm Foundation-sponsored meetings designed to get a handle on the changing farm economy and what the expansion of biofuels, particularly ethanol and biodiesel, means to rural America. The focus of this week’s meeting has been the ramifications of the bioeconomy on the environment and rural development.

President of Farm Foundation, Neil Conklin, says bringing together a diverse group of government, academic and industry leaders, who might not agree on everything, is key to the success of these forums.

“We like to call ourselves a catalyst for better food, agriculture and rural policy.”

Conklin says, first of all, they want to address issues affecting the rural economy, especially as it pertains to the bioeconomy, and second, what are the environmental effects of these actions. He says there are often times unintended consequences as people rush to keep up with the changing bioeconomy.

“[We want to] bring people to the table who have a deep understanding of these issues to talk about the [direct and indirect consequences] and how can we deal with those.”

Two more conferences are coming up in this series of Farm Foundation conferences. The first, late next winter, will look at the global implications of the bioeconomy and the second, early next spring, will consider how extension services help rural communities make the adjustment as we make this transition.

For my entire interview with Neil, click here: NeilConklin.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (2.0MB)

How we develop rural jobs as the country moves to a bioeconomy was the latest subject tackled today at the Farm Foundation’s Transition to a Bioeconomy: Environmental and Rural Impacts Conference in St. Louis.

One of the key speakers during this session was USDA’s Under Secretary for Rural Development Thomas Dorr, who talked about how we need to move forward and be aggressive… even in light of the recent stock market turbulence.

“I don’t think there’s any question that we have to move forward,” says Dorr. He says with the U.S. importing $700 billion in foreign oil… many times from those who would wish us harm… it has become an energy security and national security issue. “Why would we want to subject our kids and grandkids to that sort of dependency?”

Dorr admits that it might be easier said than done, “but there are an extraordinary numbers of hard working people who keep their shoulder to the wheel all the time to make these things work. That’s the American way.”

No matter if Republican John McCain or Democrat Barack Obama wins the election in less than three weeks, there will be a new administration in Washington, DC. Dorr expects plenty of policy debates, much like the debate we’re hearing at today’s conference, as the new administration moves forward. He believes that biofuels will be a major point for whomever is the next one to sit in the Oval Office.

Listen to more of my conversation with Dorr here: ThomasDorr.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (1.6MB)

How do we meet carbon reduction goals?
How do we reduce our carbon footprint with biodiesel and ethanol without actually creating more carbon from the production of those biofuels?
What are the trade-offs and benefits we could see between securing our food supplies and our energy security?
And how do we make all these things work while not damaging the environment we seek to save through the use and production of biofuels?

These are all good questions that came out the first session this morning as panelists and audience members at the Farm Foundation’s Transition to a Bioeconomy: Environmental and Rural Development Impacts Conference here in St. Louis.

One of the presenters, John Reilly from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), says we must be careful we’re not expanding one environmentally-friendly source just to infringe on another area of the environment.

“Biofuel could be a major, major supplier of fuel in the future and, in principle, could be a low carbon source. But the indirect effects on land use is a large concern.”

Reilly says we must make sure that we don’t convert forests into farmland and lose any benefit that we gain from the production and use of ethanol and biodiesel.

You can hear more of my conversation with Reilly here: JohnReilly.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (2.6MB)