The USDA Planted Acreage report out Monday was good news, although it does not yet reflect the damage from Midwest flooding.
Corn planted area is reported to be 1.31 million acres more than was estimated in the March intentions report at 87.3 million acres, down just 7 percent from last year. That is the second highest since 1946, behind last year’s total of 93.6 million acres. If it were all to make it, growers would harvest 78.9 million acres for grain, down 9 percent from 2007 and the second highest since 1944.
Putting the acreage report in context with respect to America’s ethanol industry, Renewable Fuels Association President Bob Dinneen said it shows how American farmers are capable of meeting the growing demand for feed, food, fiber and fuel.
“This report once again demonstrates that together with agriculture, American ethanol producers can help lead this nation in new, renewable energy direction,” said Dinneen.
National Corn Growers Association chairman Ken McCauley says his corn in Northeast Kansas looks good right now and it’s important to remember that there is plenty of corn being grown outside of Iowa.
“I tell you what, everybody is going to produce some corn,” McCauley said. “Iowa will produce a lot of corn and when you get down to it we’re gonna have a good corn crop and it could even be one of the better one or two or three.”
“All three of us have a roll to play in this industry,” Nuernberg says. “We are looking at all the initiatives under way by the different organizations, how we can work together, and make sure we’re not duplicating effort.”
EPIC’s main focus is to drive demand with consumers, while RFA’s role is to protect and promote policy in Washington DC, and ACE is the grassroots organization dedicated to expansion of ethanol production.
Because of the three different roles, Nuernberg says all three groups should be supported by the industry. “It’s all equally important and will benefit plants long-term,” she says.
EPIC has just started a major national advertising campaign, which also includes three syndicated radio programs - The Wall Street Journal, NPR Car Talk and Bill O’Reilly. Nuernberg says they are very pleased to have the support of O’Reilly in the effort.
Listen to an interview with Toni Nuernberg from the 2008 FEW here about the ethanol industry’s promotional efforts:
Several thousand ethanol industry representatives were urged Tuesday to fight back against the attacks on ethanol in two ways.
“One, would be to take pen to paper and write your own op-ed to your local paper and let them know what ethanol means to your company and your local community and begin to fight back,” said Renewable Fuels Association president Bob Dinneen during the opening general session of the 2008 International Fuel Ethanol Workshop.
The second thing Dinneen urged the industry to do was to comment on the request to the Environmental Protection Agency by Texas Governor Rick Perry to waive 50 percent of the Renewable Fuels Standard.
“The comment period on that waiver request ends next Monday and I would ask each one of you to file a comment,” Dinneen said. He directed them to the RFA website, www.ethanolrfa.org, to find out how to file a comment to EPA.
Dinneen gave a rousing pep talk to the industry, urging them to persevere. “This is going to be a difficult summer, but we’re going to get through it, and we are going to come out of this a stronger industry.”
“You are the strength of this industry, you are the reason we will get through it, but we have to come together, we have to use our strength, we have to write op-eds, we have to comment to EPA, we have to let our members of Congress know that vilifying America’s farmers and America’s only domestic renewable fuel doesn’t make sense,” Dinneen said passionately.
After his address, Dinneen was presented with a special award by BBI International president Mike Bryan for 20 years of unwavering service to the ethanol industry.
The ethanol industry is mad and they’re not going to take it anymore.
That’s how BBI International president Mike Bryan summed up his feelings about the attacks on ethanol during the opening general session of the 2008 International Fuel Ethanol Workshop on Tuesday in Nashville.
“What bothers me most is the abuse that agriculture is taking,” Bryan said. “We cannot allow that to stand. We can take the heat in the ethanol industry, but by God, we should not stand by and let agriculture be vilified for finally being able to make a living like everyone else on Main Street.”
Bryan and his wife Kathy started the Fuel Ethanol Workshop 24 years ago and have been pioneers in the ethanol industry on a global scale. Kathy is missing the conference this year for the very first time as she is battling cancer, but she was keeping track of the proceedings from home and Renewable Fuels Association president Bob Dinneen led the crowd this morning in a special greeting to Kathy with best wishes for a speedy recovery.
Listen to Mike Bryan’s opening address to the 2008 FEW here:
The ethanol plant of the future will produce both fuel and food with new technology from ICM, Inc.
“ICM has been working on this technology for the last 3-5 years,” said ICM president Dave Vander Griend. “We felt that this was a good time to roll it out in light of the food and/or fuel controversy.”
Vander Griend says their technology can literally help to feed the world. “There’s been a lot of talk about the global need for grain, but in fact, the global need is really for protein,” he said.
Vander Griend says the dry fractionation component of ICM’s six-part “Food AND Fuel” (TM) technology package can be installed in existing ethanol plants as early as the fourth quarter of this year, with production coming on line by the second quarter of 2009.
The process separates the corn kernel into its three main components - endosperm, germ and bran. Optimizing the whole kernel allows for the production of a number of food and feed grade co-products as well as another alternate fuel source to power the plant itself.
ICM installed their first “Food AND Fuel” technology package at LifeLine Foods in St. Joseph, Missouri. “They’re doing the first two steps,” said Vander Griend. “LifeLine Foods is a partnership between ICM and 700 farmers and we made that decision about two and a half years ago because this was a place where we could demonstrate all the technologies that we were working on.” They are in the process of installing the single-cell protein and the oil recovery component and they hope to have all the parts of the process commercially running at LifeLine by next summer.
Vander Griend explains the process in this interview done at the Fuel Ethanol Workshop in Nashville:
This is the 24th year for the event that started out with just a few dozen dreamers. The FEW this year will offer 23 technical workshops on topics such as cellulosic ethanol, non-food feedstocks, water utilization and conservation, non-fossil fuel power, lifecycle analysis, training the biofuels workforce of
tomorrow; and more traditional topics including improving production efficiencies, plant management, and plant safety.
Opening speakers on Tuesday feature Dr. Robert Zubrin, author of the book “Energy Victory: Winning the War on Terror by Breaking Free of Oil.” He will deliver the keynote address during the general session and offer a plan of how ethanol could help safeguard homeland security and provide solutions for global warming and developing nations.
Renewable Fuels Association president and CEO Bob Dinneen will give an industry update during the general session and provide hope to those who look to move the industry forward.
Also making an appearance on Tuesday will be Bobby Rahal, Indy car champion and co-owner of the Rahal-Letterman racing team that features the Number 17 Team Ethanol car - a model of which is on display outside the convention center.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization High Level Conference on Food Security focused on solutions to fight global hunger and increase agricultural development this week, rather than place restrictions on biofuels production.
The final declaration adopted by 180 countries calls for further study on the issue, an approach which world biofuels producers called “thoughtful.”
In a statement, leaders from the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association (CRFA), the European Bioethanol Fuel Association (eBio), and the Renewable Fuels Association said they the proposal to undertake further study of biofuels in agriculture. “We are confident it will underscore the valuable contribution biofuels can make to ease the energy and agriculture challenges confronting all nations,” they said.
Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer also welcomed the declaration’s recognition of the important issues related to the challenges and opportunities of biofuels. “The United States is firmly committed to the sustainable production and use of biofuels, both domestically and globally,” he said in a statement.
During a press conference with reporters from Rome, Schafer said that during his time there, he has “become more confident that our ethanol policy of energy security, of better environmental factors, and a reduction in the cost of petroleum use in our country is the right policy direction. And I certainly am going to urge continuing along the way we’re going.”
The real focus of the summit was on getting countries to come up with more money to meet urgent humanitarian needs for food and to help countries achieve continuing food security through investment in agriculture and research. Schafer said the United States will continue to provide the majority of food aid globally, projecting to spend nearly $5 billion on programs to combat hunger over the next two years. By contrast, oil-rich countries like Venezuela and Kuwait have only pledged to spend $100 million a year.
As talks are beginning in Rome about the factors behind and solutions to world food price inflation, Renewable Fuels Association President Bob Dinneen called on world leaders attending the summit to consider the issue in its entirety.
“Addressing issues of food security is a matter of great importance that cannot be taken lightly. As world leaders meet in Rome this week to discuss the price and availability of food worldwide, it is critical they examine all factors impacting food equally and without prejudice,” Dinneen said in a statement. “They must agree on solutions that do not derail the one industry that has significantly reduced oil consumption, while having little overall impact on the price of food – biofuels.”
Dinneen says he believes representatives from the United States at the conference, including Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer, will do a good job in addressing the misinformation about biofuels that has been causing global concerns.
“Secretary Schafer and other USDA staff are going to be aggressively promoting the biofuels agenda and correcting a lot of the misinformation that is in the world press,” said Dinneen. “And we are confident that he will continue to point to the fact that it is other factors driving food price inflation, not biofuels.”
Dinneen says other world leaders will also stand by biofuels at the conference. “I am certain that Brazilian President Lula and other forward looking leaders of the world will see that this demonization of biofuels is misguided.”
The United Nations High-Level Conference on World Food Security: the Challenges of Climate Change and Bioenergy is being held in Rome June 3-5. Besides Schafer, other members of the US delegation include U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator and Director of U.S. Foreign Assistance Henrietta H. Fore and Agriculture Under Secretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services Dr. Mark E. Keenum.
Listen to the Ethanol Report with Dinneen’s comments here:
Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman helped officials with VeraSun Energy and others in a ceremonial ribbon cutting ceremony and open house Thursday for its 110 million-gallon-per year biorefinery in Albion, Nebraska.
The plant is one of 11 VeraSun ethanol production facilities currently in operation. The company has an annual production capacity of more than one billion gallons, making VeraSun one of the largest ethanol producers in the United States. The Albion plant will annually process about 39 million bushels of corn to produce 110 million gallons of ethanol and 350,000 tons of distillers grains for livestock feed.
Renewable Fuels Association president Bob Dinneen congratulated VeraSun on the celebration. “Nebraska’s residents have long understood the economic, environmental and security benefits of a strong domestic ethanol industry, and their legislators have helped set the stage for ethanol and other biofuels to contribute to our nation’s energy security,” said Dinneen.
A new website has been launched to focus on the positive impacts of biofuels on the economy, the environment and America in general.
GoodFuels.org is “for” clean energy, domestic energy production, fair reporting and balanced research. What they are against is unbalanced reporting, misleading research, relying on imported fuel and vilifying the American farmer.
GoodFuels.org seeks to provide a thoughtful and comprehensive discussion of all the issues surrounding biofuels and their important role in our energy future, as well as be a resource for information, news and research pertaining to developments in biofuels.
The website was launched by the Renewable Fuels Association as a way to publicize good news about biofuels and try and combat some of the negative and misleading information circulating in the general media and on-line.
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The USDA Planted Acreage report out Monday was good news, although it does not yet reflect the damage from Midwest flooding.
Putting the acreage report in context with respect to America’s ethanol industry, Renewable Fuels Association President Bob Dinneen said it shows how American farmers are capable of meeting the growing demand for feed, food, fiber and fuel. 
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“All three of us have a roll to play in this industry,” Nuernberg says. “We are looking at all the initiatives under way by the different organizations, how we can work together, and make sure we’re not duplicating effort.”
EPIC’s main focus is to drive demand with consumers, while RFA’s role is to protect and promote policy in Washington DC, and ACE is the grassroots organization dedicated to expansion of ethanol production.
1 comment
“One, would be to take pen to paper and write your own op-ed to your local paper and let them know what ethanol means to your company and your local community and begin to fight back,” said 
The ethanol industry is mad and they’re not going to take it anymore. 
The ethanol plant of the future will produce both fuel and food with new technology from 
The process separates the corn kernel into its three main components - endosperm, germ and bran. Optimizing the whole kernel allows for the production of a number of food and feed grade co-products as well as another alternate fuel source to power the plant itself.
The 
Opening speakers on Tuesday feature Dr. Robert Zubrin, author of the book “Energy Victory: Winning the War on Terror by Breaking Free of Oil.” He will deliver the keynote address during the general session and offer a plan of how ethanol could help safeguard homeland security and provide solutions for global warming and developing nations.
In a statement, leaders from the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association (CRFA), the European Bioethanol Fuel Association (eBio), and the 
Dinneen says he believes representatives from the United States at the conference, including Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer, will do a good job in addressing the misinformation about biofuels that has been causing global concerns.
Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman helped officials with 
A new website has been launched to focus on the positive impacts of biofuels on the economy, the environment and America in general.