Meeting the Environmental Challenges of Biofuels
A fascinating discussion this morning at the opening session of the Transition to a Bioeconomy: Environmental and Rural Development Impacts conference here in St. Louis.
Speakers have included government and university experts who are presenting what challenges face the bioeconomy, especially on the environmental side of the issue.
Kitty Smith with the USDA’s Economic Research Service and chair of the “The Bioeconomy & the Environment” session says biofuels, such as ethanol and biodiesel, are a much better alternative to non-renewable fossil fuels.
“But there are legal, economic and market public management challenges to be met.”
She says a platform, such as the one Farm Foundation is providing here, gives the diverse group attending a chance to put forth their ideas in a climate where everyone is not necessarily coming from the exact same background.
“The Farm Foundation is outstanding at bringing together academics, government and industry to talk about practical kinds of problems, so individuals aren’t speaking to like minds… they’re speaking to a diverse audience where ideas and challenges come back from the audience.”
You can hear my conversation with Smith here:
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (984.1KB)
The latest in a series of Farm Foundation-sponsored meetings on how to transition the country to a bioeconomy is about to get underway this morning in St. Louis, Mo.
The latest in a series of conferences sponsored by the Farm Foundation on how this country can transition to a bioeconomy takes place this week in St. Louis, Mo. 
In just about a week and a half, government officials, bioenergy experts and leaders in the private industry will gather in St. Louis, Mo., for the third in a series of conferences sponsored by the Farm Foundation addressing the issues facing rural areas as they move to a bioeconomy.
“The purpose of the conference is to provide an unbiased presentation of issues that are going to affect us in agriculture and otherwise as we transition to a bioeconomy.”
Economist Wally Tyner says between 2004 and the beginning of 2008, oil went from $40 per barrel to $120 per barrel at the same time corn prices increased from $2.00 a bushel to $6.00. “Of that $4 increase, about $1 is due to the US subsidy and about $3 is due to the higher crude oil price,” Tyner told a 
University of Nebraska policy specialist Brad Lubben, who gave his analysis of the study at the forum in terms of public policy, said this is an important point to consider when attempting to change the Renewable Fuels Standard in an effort to lower food prices because it is the “easiest” to manipulate. “It’s an important consequence to realize that the easiest policy to attack may have relatively little significance and little impact on the current supply and demand balance for these ag commodities and for energy,” Lubben said.
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Farm Foundation president Neil Conklin says what the study shows is that today’s food price levels are the result of complex interactions among multiple factors, including global changes in production and consumption of key commodities, the depreciation of the U.S. dollar, and growth in the production of biofuels.
To wrap things up here at the Farm Foundation Transition To A Bio Economy conference I spoke with board member, Cornelius Gallagher. He says the conference brought together world class leaders who were able to listen to some fantastic presentations. I’ve posted interviews with almost all of them so please scroll back through them.
What we know and what we need to know was Peggy Caswell’s, USDA-ERS, topic here at the Farm Foundation Transition To A Bio Economy conference. She says we need to know things about how farmers or the providers of biofuels and feed stocks are going to have to change the way they do business. She used the example of having to look at different types of contracts and financing.
The issue of investment and financing for ethanol plants and bio refineries in general was addressed today by Chris Groobey, Baker & McKenzie, LLP. He works on project financing with investors and lenders and mostly in renewable fuels. He painted a pretty bleak picture.
Our USDA Under Secretary for Research, Education and Economics is Gale Buchanan. He was here at the Transition To A Bio Economy conference to talk about the need for research in a growing bio economy. In fact, he sees a need for a tremendous amount of research to address the opportunities presented by the whole energy picture.
When it comes to infrastructure needs for a bio economy our rural road system is a key component. To speak about it here at the Transition To A Bio Economy conference we heard from Frank Dooley, Purdue University. He sees a big increase in grain production, primarily in the midwest. With that comes a growing demand for transportation. He thinks we should be concerned because most of the corn will be moved by truck and that’s going to impact rural roads. He also sees an increase in rail transportation but not significantly.
During our discussion on the infrastructure needs of a Transition To A Bio Economy, we heard from Paul Hammes, Union Pacific Railroad. Of course his focus was on rail infrastructure and as it relates to biofuels. Specifically, he spoke to the different pieces of that supply chain like rail cars, the rail network and unload/load capacity.
The opening speaker for day two of Farm Foundation’s Transition To A Bio Economy conference is our USDA Under Secretary for Rural Development, Thomas Dorr. He talked about rural policy and we visited for a while before the session got started.
Sarah Brechbill, Purdue University, got to put her masters degree project on the stage today here at the Farm Foundation’s Transition To A Bio Economy conference. She looked at the cost to get biomass to a plant and specifically looked at switchgrass and corn stover.