Food and Fuel America.com

Thursday, August 9, 2007

Iowa State Patrol Goes Green...and Yellow

Iowa Governor Chet Culver inspected the first Ethanol-powered patrol cars this week as they were unveiled in a ceremony on the capitol steps.

According to the governor, "There is no more recognized or greater symbol of the state of Iowa than the Highway Patrol, and now that symbol will be carrying ethanol."

Besides keeping the state clean from crime, the new patrol cars are helping to keep Iowa environmentally clean too by using ethanol, a clean-burning, renewable-produced fuel.

The modified Crown Victorias are helping to support Iowa's economy by being Flexible Fuel Vehicles (FFV) that can run on either E85, a mixture of 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline, or regular gasoline including E10, a blend of 10% ethanol and 90% regular gasoline.

According to Iowa state officials, 10 patrol cars are going into immediate service. Over 100 additional cars will join them next year.

Source: Iowa State Gov website

Food and Fuel America.com
http://www.foodandfuelamerica.com
"Good and Balanced Food and Fuel News!"

Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Economist Explains Higher Food Prices Caused By Higher Energy Costs

A few months ago, economist John M. Urbanchuk, a director of LECG, released a report that detailed how higher energy costs---not higher corn costs - were responsible for higher food prices for consumers.

Last week, Mr. Urbanchuk spoke in depth on the issue in Illinois. The following Q&A video allows him to address the issues surrounding the food versus fuel debate.

If the video does not display, CLICK HERE.

READ MORE

Subscribe to updates by Email

Food and Fuel America.com
http://www.foodandfuelamerica.com
"Good and Balanced Food and Fuel News!

urbanchuck

Tuesday, August 7, 2007

Corn Growers Launch New Blog - CornCommentary.com

The National Corn Growers Association launched a new blog to focus attention on key issues about corn and corn growers.

NCGA President Ken McCauley says the blog, “Corn Commentary.com” provides an informal and interactive perspective.

“NCGA created this blog to provide a lighter, more personalized look at corn, agriculture and the events of the day that affect the nation’s corn producers,” McCauley explained. “It’s meant to be interactive, like a discussion with good friends in the coffee shop.”

“We certainly want corn growers to have some fun with this,” McCauley said. “There’s more than one way to discuss a serious issue. I hope everyone checks out the blog, and if they see something they’d like to comment on, don’t be shy.”

Source: National Corn Growers Association (primenewswire.com)

RELATED ARTICLES

Food and Fuel America.com
http://www.foodandfuelamerica.com
"Good and Balanced Food and Fuel News!"

Monday, August 6, 2007

ND Ag Commissioner: Naysayers are Wrong About Ethanol

The naysayers who do not believe or do not want you to believe in the potential of ethanol have recently changed their tune.

Until recently, they were lamenting ethanol’s supposedly negative energy balance, that it yields less energy than is needed to produce it.

Wrong! In fact, it takes less than 35,000 BTUs to turn corn into a gallon of ethanol, while a gallon of ethanol offers at least 77,000 BTUs. That’s a positive energy balance. A recent U.S. Department of Agriculture study finds ethanol providing a net energy gain of at least 77 percent.

Now, the anti-ethanol chorus wants us to believe the demand for corn for ethanol production is solely responsible for driving up the cost of food. Call it the “Food versus Fuel Blues.” Farmers can only wish that commodity prices have such a major impact on the cost of food.

Farmers make only pennies on every dollar Americans spend on food. When USDA announced record corn plantings for 2007, did food prices fall? No. Then, when corn prices plummeted, did food prices follow suit? Of course not. When corn was $2 a bushel, a box of corn flakes contained 2.2 cents worth of corn. When the price of corn doubled, the value of the corn in the box of corn flakes also doubled to a whole 4.4 cents!

The principal reason for the rising cost of food was and is $70-a-barrel oil, much of it imported. It is the increased cost of petroleum, not corn, that is driving up the cost of the average grocery bill food to the tune of $10 per week.

In the meantime, ethanol offers us the opportunity to produce and consume more of our own energy. Ethanol is not the entire solution to America’s energy crisis, but is certainly a part of that solution.

Food versus fuel? Don’t believe a word of it. America’s corn farmers can meet our food, feed and fuel needs.

Sincerely,

Roger Johnson
Agriculture Commissioner
North Dakota

Source: ND Department of Agriculture (PDF)

Food and Fuel America.com
http://www.foodandfuelamerica.com
"Good and Balanced Food and Fuel News!"

General Motors: Food Price Increases Not Caused by Ethanol

GM General Motors Food vs Fuel Food versus Fuel Ethanol E85 FFV

General Motors as released a video report this week detailing the reasons for recent food price increases.

The report shows that the rising cost of gasoline, marketing and packaging have the largest impact on consumer food prices.

Recent media reports and perpetual critics of biofuels have attempted to link recent price increases with increases in commodity grain pricing. However, numerous industry experts and studies have shown this is not the case. Below is the a YouTube video of the report.

To view the video report at GM, CLICK HERE.

Subscribe to updates by Email

Food and Fuel America.com
http://www.foodandfuelamerica.com
"Good and Balanced Food and Fuel News!"

Thursday, August 2, 2007

Corn Growers: Food and Fuel Report Released

The National Corn Growers Association has released a new report, "US Corn Growers: Producing Food and Fuel (PDF)" which helps to highlight how corn growers' ability to meet the demands of the food and fuel markets.

Some highlights from the report:

The Ethanol Process Creates Feed and Food Ingredients
Ethanol isn’t the only product created by the fuel alcohol fermentation process. Every 56-pound bushel of corn used in the dry grind ethanol process yields 18 pounds of distillers grains, a good source of energy and protein for livestock and poultry. Similarly, a bushel of corn in the wet mill ethanol process creates 13.5 pounds of corn gluten feed and 2.6 pounds of high protein corn gluten meal, as well as corn oil used in food processing. The ethanol process removes only starch—not fat or protein—from the feed and food market. The starch portion of the kernel is converted to ethanol, while the protein, fat and other nutrients, vitamins and minerals are passed through to the feed coproducts or human food ingredients. Protein, which is left intact by the ethanol process, is a highly valued product in world food and feed markets. Conversely, starch is abundantly available and lower in value. Aside from preserving the protein, a considerable portion of the corn’s original digestible energy is also preserved in the distillers grains.

Record Demand for Corn is Being Met with Record Supplies
Demand for corn is at an all-time high, due in large part to the rapid increase in corn-based ethanol production.

Corn Demand for Food and Feed is Plateauing
Because other corn demand categories show signs of only limited future growth, it is expected that most of the additional supply resulting from expanded acreage and higher yields will be available for biofuels production.

Ethanol is Produced from Field Corn, Not Sweet Corn
Some purveyors of the “food versus fuel” argument seem to forget that ethanol is made from field corn, a grain that is undigestible by humans in its raw form. Unlike sweet corn, field corn requires some form of processing before it can be consumed by humans. Moreover, very little field corn is actually used for human food ingredient processing. As an example, just 1.5 percent of the 2006/07 crop was used for cereals, while other human food uses accounted for roughly 9 percent of total corn use. The overwhelming majority of U.S. corn, including exports, feeds livestock—not humans.

And finally:

“The consumers should complain to The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and not to the farmer if they’re unhappy with food prices. The U.S. regularly encounters food inflation even when corn and soybean prices are low or falling. Retailers and food processors typically put an extra markup on top of any increase in commodity prices.”
—Michael Swanson, Wells Fargo agricultural economist

Source: National Corn Growers Association

Food and Fuel America.com
http://www.foodandfuelamerica.com
Good and Balanced Food and Fuel News!