Food and Fuel America.com

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Root for Ethanol Today - ACE's Letter to the Editor Campaign

The American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) has started a new "Root for Ethanol" Letter to the Editor campaign.

According to ACE, "ethanol's supporters must not be silent as ethanol's opponents are hitting the pavement to stop our progress. Now is the time to spread the good word about ethanol and its benefits!

During the month of August, ACE challenges all ethanol supporters to write a letter to the editor of their local paper. Please help shape public opinion by sending a letter to the editor of your local paper. It's time for grassroots ethanol supporters to take action and correct the latest misinformation hitting the streets. By rooting together, for the same cause and with the same facts, we can spread our message far and wide.

Writing a letter to the editor can help shape public opinion. Please help turn the tide of the negative ethanol coverage by letting your voice be heard!"

Click THIS LINK to get started at ACE's Root for Ethanol page.

Sample Letter from ACE's Legislative Action Center:

The anti-ethanol chorus is growing louder, those conveniently blaming all the world's problems on ethanol. The latest argument of ethanol driving up food prices sounds alarming, until you look at the facts. Sure, corn prices do factor in to some foods, but to find the real culprit in the grocery store aisle you should look at energy costs. High crude oil prices translate into high fuel costs, not only at the pump, but also in the consumer goods that are dependent upon energy for processing, packaging, and transportation. Corn is only a tiny fraction of the overall food-price picture.

With Big Oil cheering them on, food companies are loudly bemoaning higher corn prices and demanding a halt to more ethanol. Well, corn prices have dropped significantly since the USDA announced this year's large corn crop. If food prices went up because of higher corn prices, have lower corn prices brought them back down? If not, we may have just identified more evidence that this "food vs. fuel" debate has been manufactured without all the facts in hand -- or worse yet, created for the purpose of profit.

Source: American Coalition for Ethanol

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

Monday, August 13, 2007

Indiana State Fair 2007: Year of Corn

The Great Indiana State Fair has kicked off and its theme for 2007 is "Year of Corn". The fair runs until August 19th. The first Indiana State Fair was held in 1852 in what is now Military Park in downtown Indianapolis. Indiana became the sixth state to begin holding a state agricultural fair.

Some fun facts concerning Indiana's top crop:

#1 crop in Indiana and in the world; Indiana #5 in nation for corn production.
The World's Food - Americans consume 17 billion quarts of popped popcorn annually or 54 quarts per man, woman and child.
Each year, a single U.S. farmer provides food and fiber for 129 people - 97 in the U.S. and 32 overseas.
One tiny seed can produce between 8000 - 1000 new plants.
In the U.S., corn production measures more than two times that of any other crop.
There are over 3,500 uses for corn.
Seventy-five percent of all grocery items contain corn in some processed form.
One bushel of corn sweetens more than 400 cans of soda.
The average American consumes nearly two bushels of corn annually in the form of corn sweeteners.
Corn as a renewable resource can be beneficial in making products such as ethanol fuel, ethanol windshield washer fluid, CMA (calcium magnesium acetate) road de-icer and other degradable products made from corn starch.
Corn is the main ingredient in most dry pet food.
Corn is beneficial to the environment as it absorbs carbon dioxide and gives off oxygen (just like a rainforest).
Corn is grown on every continent except Antarctica.
Exports are critical to the well being of American agriculture. Nearly one third of our nation's corn crop is targeted for exports.
A pound of corn consists of approximately 1,300 kernels.

Source: Indiana State Fair

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

Sunday, August 12, 2007

New Report Explains Corn, Ethanol and Food Price Increases

A new study by the Center for Agriculture and Rural Development (CARD) at Iowa State University asks, "Do Biofuels Mean Inexpensive Food Is a Thing of the Past?"

The results are informative, especially:

In the United States, consumers spend a relatively small amount of their disposable incomes on food....this share in the United States has fallen from 20 percent in the early 1950s to about 10 percent today
Across all food consumed, 30 percent higher corn prices increase all average food prices by 1.1 percent.

With agriculture being asked to supply an increasing share of U.S. fuel, it follows that food prices will trend upward. For most Americans, though, the higher prices caused by ethanol will hardly be noticeable.

The study also looks at the recent rise in dairy prices and confirms the other factors driving them higher:

The CARD assessment of modest effects on food prices of increased corn prices seems to run counter to what is happening in the supermarket. Milk prices are at an all-time high, while meat and egg prices continue to remain at historically high levels.
If high corn prices are not to blame, what is? The primary cause of high milk prices is that international demand for dairy products has outstripped international supply. The lack of supply is a result of drought in Australia, a drop in subsidized milk production in the European Union, and a lack of profits in the U.S. dairy industry in recent years. Strong world demand is a result of continued strong income growth in China, India, and other Asian countries, and continued strong U.S. demand for cheese. The excess world demand for dairy products has pulled U.S. products onto world markets, thereby raising U.S. prices. Instead of fighting foreign competition, U.S. milk producers are now benefiting from international markets.

Source: Center for Agriculture and Rural Development

RELATED ARTICLES

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

Saturday, August 11, 2007

E85 Conversion Kits Risk Damage and Fines

ethanol conversion food vs fuel food versus fuel

UPDATE - Oct 13 2007 - Some news report that Flex Fuel US has received an EPA certification for conversion for fleet vehicles.
-------------------------------------------------------

With all of the talk about ethanol, it's easy to get confused about key terms. We've seen media reports about why E10 can't be used (wrong!), consumers using E85 in regular vehicles (wow!), and E85 conversion kits sold online. So here's a quick summary to clear things up.

E10 - A blend of 10% ethanol and 90% unleaded gasoline. Every major automaker in the world approves the use of E-10 Unleaded in their vehicles.

E85 - A blend of 85% ethanol and 15% unleaded gasoline that can be used in Flexible Fuel Vehicles (FFV) which are available from General Motors, Ford and other car manufacturers. Consumers should never use E85 in a conventional, gasoline-only vehicle. This can lead to a range of problems, including not being able to start the engine, damage to engine components, illumination of the check engine light, and emissions increases.

E85 Conversion Kits - It is technically possible to convert a conventional gasoline vehicle to run on E85; however, such conversions would likely be illegal unless they are certified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). To date, EPA has not certified any E85 conversions. In addition, converting a conventional vehicle to E85 may violate the terms of the vehicle warranty and even be subject to fines from the EPA.

Learn more about Ethanol, E10 and E85 at the EPA, DrivingEthanol, EthanolFacts and the National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition websites.

RELATED ARTICLES

Source: EPA

Never Miss a New Article--> Subscribe to updates by Email
Find What You Seek --> Search FoodandFuelAmerica.com

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

Friday, August 10, 2007

USDA Forecasts Record-Setting Corn Crop for 2007

U.S. farmers are expected to produce the largest corn crop in history in 2007. Corn production is forecast at 13.1 billion bushels, 10.6 percent above the previous record of 11.8 billion bushels set in 2004.

Based on conditions as of August 1, corn yields are expected to average 152.8 bushels per acre, up 3.7 bushels from last year. This would be second highest corn yield on record, behind the 160.4 bushels per acre produced in 2004. Growers are expected to harvest 85.4 million acres of corn for grain, the most since 1933 and 14.8 million more acres than last year.

Source: USDA

RELATED ARTICLES

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

High Milk Prices, Part 3

Milk price stories in the media are still drawing a lot of attention. And most of them are spewing the same inaccurate information. So it's surprising to read today on CNN, "Skyrocketing milk prices hit families just in time for school" that has the story almost correct. The article reports that worldwide demand and Australian drought are causing the higher prices. But it still leaves the notion that all input costs get passed along to consumers in final food prices. And it conveniently ignores higher energy, marketing and labor costs---which have been shown to be the biggest cost drivers. Nor does it get into the facts of how much corn is actually used or that the ethanol process creates Dried Distillers Grains that is used for animal feed. Well, reporting is at least getting a little bit better.

READ MORE

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

Corn-Based Water Bottles Offer a Solution

Over the past few weeks, there have many news stories concerning the backlash against petroleum-produced water bottles. It started in June when the Conference of Mayors issued a resolution asking for a study on the impact of these bottles on municipal streams. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom in July banned the city from buying bottled water citing environmental and cost impacts.

Generally the media focus has not been on the high cost of this bottled water-often just purified municipal tap water. Interesting that the media didn't really focus on that. No, it's been on the waste and lack of recycling options. We're surprised that they haven't blamed farmers and ethanol for expensive water too.

But what's really interesting is the lack of reporting on alternatives to the oil-based bottles. Specifically, water bottles like the ones from BIOTA. The BIOTA Spring Water bottle is manufactured from a 100% renewable resource, corn, using Poly Lactic Acid (PLA) technology. PLA-based products have started to become popular-replacements for oil-based plastics by a number of influential food and retail companies.

Maybe we've expecting too much from the media to report something practical.

RELATED ARTICLES

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