Domestic Fuel

The American Farm Bureau Federation, Growth Energy, National Farmers Union, and National Corn Growers Association joined together today to host a media call to applaud the recently released report from the Congressional Budget Office, “The Impact of Ethanol Use on Food Prices and Greenhouse-Gas Emissions.” The report concluded that from April 2007-April 2008 ethanol did have a slight impact on rising food prices but that other culprits, such as high energy prices, had the most impact on rising food costs. Of the 5.1 percent increase in food prices, expanded ethanol production contributed between 0.5 and 0.8 percent of the increase in food prices measured by the consumer price index.

Bob Stallman, President of the American Farm Bureau Federation, began by saying, “The results come as no surprise to us. We have called for hearings to determine why food prices have increased. It’s disingenuous to only look at corn when determining why food prices are increasing. We think they owe us an apology.”

Tom Buis, CEO of Growth Energy expanded on the factors that did have the most impact on rising food prices including the weak dollar, increased exports, unregulated energy markets, and oil speculation.  Roger Johnson, President of the National Farmers Union noted that studies have shown that during the same time food prices and gas prices were on the rise, ethanol saved consumers an average of 34 cents per gallon. This equates to nearly $500 per year for the average family.

The ethanol industry has recently filed a “Green Jobs Waiver” or “E15 Waiver” with the EPA to increase the blend level from 10 percent to 15 percent. It has been argued by ethanol proponents that unless the blend wall is increased the industry won’t be able to achieve the goals set out in the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) calling for 36 billion gallons of biofuels blended per year by 2022. “We won’t get there unless we make the ethanol industry profitable again and get through the higher blend wall,” summed up Rick Tolman, CEO of the National Corn Growers Association. “We will provide what we need to get to the next generation of biofuels.”

The National Biodiesel Board is refusing to let food companies spread fear and misinformation in the continuing food-versus-fuel debate.

NBB CEO Joe Jobe, responding to Kraft Foods’ CEO Irene Rosenfeld’s blame of biofuels for the rise in food prices, has submitted his own opinion piece to USA Today asking how Kraft can continue to make soaring profits at the cost of its customers… while trying to wrongly blame biodiesel and ethanol:

[Rosenfeld] said, “Forty percent of the food supply is being diverted for use in fuel.” Almost half of all grains, meats, dairy, vegetables and fruit in the world are being converted to fuel? This is fear-mongering at its worst.

Food companies have blamed biofuels all year for higher prices. Rosenfeld’s statement shows how far companies will go to distract Americans as Kraft raked in $1.4 billion in earnings last quarter. Adjusted for inflation, corn and wheat have dropped by 50% since spring, and soybean prices are lower than at almost any other time since the Great Depression even as biofuels production expands. This year, oil companies made more than ever in profits. The difference is, when oil prices dropped, so did the price at the pump. Too bad Big Food isn’t living up to Big Oil’s standards.

So the next time you’re picking up a box of “the Cheesiest” maybe you should ask, why is it still the priciest? Rest assured it’s not biodiesel’s and ethanol’s faults.

The Ethanol Promotion and Information Council has been recognized by the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) Nebraska chapter for its work in fighting the misperceptions that ethanol was the primary culprit to the rising cost of food.

EPIC’s media kit “Food AND Fuel” received the Award of Excellence from the organization. In addition, EPIC also received an Award of Excellence in the OP-ED/Bylined Article category.

EPIC recently announced that it is joining Growth Energy, a newly formed organization dedicated to the promise of agriculture and growing America’s economy through cleaner, greener energy.

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)

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The newly formed ethanol advocacy group, Growth Energy, has aggressive plans for attacking some of the major issues impacting the growth of biofuels.

During an interview at the National Association of Farm Broadcasting annual meeting, Growth Energy board member Greg Krissek of ICM said they want to “especially focus on the federal work being done on mid-level and higher level blends (of ethanol) but accelerate that.”

The new organization will be “working very closely together” with the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council (EPIC). “As the industry gets bigger, it’s an opportunity for coalitions to be built of groups of producers,” said Krissek.

Growth Energy will also be aggressively fighting back against food companies that have been blaming ethanol production for higher food prices. “The question is simple – are food prices going to fall? Or was it really a disingenuous statement that was made,” Krissek said. The organization is requesting that Congress to hold hearings with food companies to ask them the question.

Listen an interview with Greg Krissek here: nafb-08-krissek.mp3

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Representatives from both sides of the food versus fuel debate discussed the issue on Friday in Kansas City during a forum held by the Agricultural Business Council of Kansas City.

Speakers included USDA Undersecretary Tom Dorr; editor Morton Sosland of Sosland Publishing Co.; and Randy Schnepf, agricultural economist with the Congressional Research Service.

The panel moderated by Mike Adams of Agri-Talk included two farmers – Blake Hurst, vice president of Missouri Farm Bureau and Ken McCauley, past chairman of the National Corn Growers Association – who represented the fuel perspective. On the food side were Robb MacKie, president of the American Bakers Association, and Dan Gustafson of the Food and Agriculture Organization.

Notably, all four panel members made the point that biofuels are not the main culprit for rising food prices and agreed that major factors behind rising food costs include tight global grain stocks, export bans, and record energy costs. “It appears the volatile corn and wheat markets have adjusted down, for now. The key constraints on global grain stocks remain to be land available for agricultural production and crop yields,” said Schnepf.

McCauley noted that crop yields may double by the year 2030. “We are currently using all available technology to significantly increase corn production, and there is more technology in the pipeline that will boost yields even more,” McCauley said. “Likewise, we can find new markets for corn while still meeting all traditional needs and being responsible stewards of the natural resources we’ve been given.”

Biofuels in general and ethanol in particular were part of the discussion at the World Food Prize symposium in Des Moines this year. Despite the food versus fuel controversy that permeated the headlines for 2008, there seemed to be more acceptance of biofuels as being able to co-exist with food production and being part of the overall global agriculture picture.

This Ethanol Report podcast features some of the comments made at the World Food Prize events last week by UK Scientific Advisor Sir Gordon Conway, International Biofuels Commission co-chair Roberto Rodrigues, World Bank president Robert Zoellick, former senators George McGovern and Bob Dole – this year’s World Food Prize recipients, and Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer.

You can listen to “The Ethanol Report” on-line here:
ethanol-report-19.mp3

Or you can subscribe to this podcast by following this link.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (5.6MB)

The answer to feeding a growing world population lies with building on the success of the American farmer, according to Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer, who addressed the World Food Prize breakfast Friday morning in Des Moines.

“Our focus should be on sharing our technology, equipment and know-how, processes and procedures to help farmers all over the world boost the productivity of their land,” Schafer said. “Just in the last 15 years, our corn yields have increased from an average of 100 bushels per acre to 150 bushels per acre, a 50 percent increase in yield in 15 years.”

“Gains of this kind have allowed the United States producers to meet the rising demand for food and feed and fuel, while maintaining record level exports and strong food aid donations,” Schafer added.

Listen to Schafer’s address to the World Food Prize here:
wfp-08-schafer.mp3

You can also download the audio with this link:
Ed Schafer at World Food Prize (mp3)

See photos of the World Food Prize event here.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (11.1MB)

Making soybeans into biodiesel is no food versus fuel competition – rather it is food AND fuel.

“When you talk about soy biodiesel, you can actually burn the soy and eat it too,” says Jim Hershey, who is executive director for both the World Initiative for Soy in Human Health (WISHH) Program and the World Soy Foundation.

During a World Food Prize luncheon sponsored by the soybean industry on Thursday, Hershey said that when you take the oil to use as a fuel, you’re still left with every bit of protein from the soybean. “By raising more soy for biodiesel, we actually raise more protein and that’s what the world needs,” Hershey said.

Hershey says they have calculated that of the 100 million gallons of soy biodiesel produced in Iowa last year, “the protein that came from those beans would feed 30 billion rations of soy” based on 25 grams per day.

Listen to an interview with Hershey here:
wfp-08-hershey.mp3

You can also download the audio with this link: Jim Hershey at World Food Prize (mp3)

See photos of the World Food Prize event here.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (3.1MB)

The promise of new science and technology for increasing food and fuel production was part of a conversation panel at the World Food Prize Norman Borlaug Symposium in Des Moines on Wednesday.

Among the panelists was Brazil’s former minister of agriculture Roberto Rodrigues, co-chair of the International Biofuels Commission, who talked about the importance of biofuels development for developing nations. “Biofuels depend enormously on sun,” Rodriques said. “That means that the production of biofuels, bioelectricity and agri-energy in general will happen between the two tropics – the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn – Latin American countries, African countries and the poorest Asian countries,” meaning that the poorest countries could be the producers of the most important commodity – energy.

Rodrigues says “absolutely we are going to improve new technologies and we are able to feed humankind and produce biofuels all together.” He notes that Brazil is a good example of what can be done in that regard and that there is a “myth” that production of sugarcane for ethanol is reducing the production of food. “This year we have a record grain production, but we also have record sugarcane production, record meat production and record production of dairy products -so there is no competition between sugarcane and food in Brazil and we can apply that in African, other Latin American and Asian countries.”

Listen to Rodrigues’ comments here:
wfp-08-roberto.MP3

See photos of the World Food Prize event here.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (6.5MB)

A senior economist with the nation’s largest general farm organization says the benefits of ethanol outweigh the costs.

During the Association of Equipment Manufacturers AgExecutive forum in St. Louis last week, American Farm Bureau senior economist Terry Francl said that the consumer is seeing a benefit from ethanol.

“The bottom line on the ethanol side is that although it has driven up the cost of things such as feed and food to a certain extent, for every extra dollar that consumers spend for food, they have reduced gasoline costs approximately $2. So it’s a win-win situation for consumers, and for that matter, taxpayers,” Francl said.

The economist says people involved in agriculture and ethanol need to work harder to try and get this message out in the media and to the general public. “It’s not something that is easy because there are a lot of anti-ethanol people that provide a lot of misinformation but we just have to be vigilant and try and address those issues when they come up.”

While the American Farm Bureau is a general farm organization with equal representation from both the crop and livestock sectors, they have continued to support the development of ethanol and biodiesel because of the benefits they offer to the farm sector in general. Francl also points out that the farm equipment sector plays a vital role in helping to increase productivity so that producers can supply both food and fuel for the world.

Lots of good stuff in their presentations, which you can listen to here:
aem-forum-08-francl.MP3

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The Nebraska Ethanol Board, in cooperation with the University of Nebraska Center for Energy Science Research, is hosting a policy forum in October to discuss issues of rising energy and food prices.

The forum will provide an opportunity for Nebraska policymakers and consumers to better understand how ethanol policy plays a role in economic development, energy security, agriculture and the environment.

The Nebraska Ethanol Board is inviting presentations from a diverse group of people, including corn growers, restaurant owners and livestock feeders. Confirmed presenters include Dr. Ken Cassman of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Dr. Terry Klopfenstein of UN-L, Michael Kelsey of the Nebraska Cattlemen, Jon Holzfaster of the Nebraska Corn Board, and Jim Jenkins, rancher, restaurateur and chairman of the Nebraska Ethanol Board.

The forum is scheduled for Friday, October 24 at 9 a.m. at the Scott Conference Center in Omaha.

A summit was held last week in Chicago to address the role of seed technology in meeting the growing demand for food, feed, fiber and fuel.

The goal of the American Seed Research Summit was to bring together research leaders from industry, academia and government to identify major seed research challenges and to develop a national strategy and action plan to solve those challenges.

Sponsored by the American Seed Trade Association (ASTA), the American Seed Research Foundation and the National Council of Commercial Plant Breeders, over 40 representatives were in attendance at the two-day summit. Keynote speakers included representatives of USDA’s Agricultural Research Service, the University of Wisconsin, Pioneer Hi-bred International and Monsanto.

The Agricultural Business Council of Kansas City is holding a forum on Food and Fuel next month to examine the challenges and opportunities of meeting food and fuel demands.

The forum will feature both agricultural and food business leaders, including representatives from the National Corn Growers Association, Missouri Farm Bureau, the American Bakers Association, and the Food and Agricultural Organization.

The forum will be held Thursday, October 23, from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm at the American Royal court in Kansas City. Registration and further information can be found here on the ABC of KC website.