Food and Fuel America.com

Saturday, June 7, 2008

US Backs Biofuels at Food Summit

USDA Ed Schafer Biofuels ethanol Food Rome FAO

US Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer backed continued support for biofuels during the recent High-Level Conference on World Food Security hosted by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations in Rome.

In his remarks, the secretary confirmed that the US remains committed to sustainable food production and biofuels.

The use of sustainable biofuels can increase energy security, foster economic development especially in rural areas, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions without weighing heavily on food prices.

The U.S. continues to lead on this issue. A recently passed law requires that we minimize possible food security and environmental concerns, in part through significant investment in next-generation biofuel technologies that do not rely on grains and oilseeds used for food or feed.

Let there be no mistake, the United States is firmly committed to the sustainable production and use of biofuels both domestically and globally.

Audio of his full remarks is available HERE.

Source: USDA

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Friday, June 6, 2008

Midwestern Governors Support the RFS

Midwestern Governors Association corn ethanol RFS

This week the Midwestern Governors Association wrote to the EPA Administrator in support of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).

This is in response to the request by Texas to request a partial waiver of the requirement.

The letter cited the many benefits of ethanol and responded to the misguided efforts to blame ethanol for higher food prices.

The association's membership includes governors from South Dakota, Michigan, Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, Indiana Wisconsin, Nebraska, North Dakota, Minnesota, Kansas and Ohio.

June 3, 2008

Dear Administrator Johnson:

On behalf of the Midwestern Governors Association (MGA), we respectfully urge you to uphold the new and higher Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) in the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 as passed by Congress and signed by the President. Granting waivers to the RFS would be contrary to your agency’s mission to protect human health and the environment.

A waiver would also contradict the President’s “Twenty in Ten” plan that you worked on to pass. In his 2007 State of the Union Address, President Bush announced the plan to reduce U.S. gasoline usage by 20 percent in 10 years. One of the objectives of the plan is to strengthen our nation’s energy security by reducing foreign oil dependency, and by promoting the development of homegrown, renewable energy sources. The plan called for increased use of renewable and alternative fuels, and set a goal of 36 billion gallons of renewable energy sources to be used in the U.S., as is reflected in the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007.

The EPA’s own analysis of the current RFS shows the increased use of renewable fuels, like ethanol, will reduce traditional car pollutants, such as benzene and carbon monoxide. Ethanol is non-toxic, water soluble, and biodegradable. In addition, ethanol poses no threat of contamination or degradation of surface or ground water.

The blame placed on ethanol for higher food prices is misguided. Higher food prices are the result of many factors, including rising transportation and production costs due to record oil prices, increased demand for grains and meat from developing countries, increased speculator investment and influence in all commodities markets, and extended global drought. As a result, all food commodity prices are high, not just the price of corn. In short, granting any waiver to the RFS will not reduce current food commodity prices.

The RFS actually helps move the ethanol industry toward use of cellulosic materials. The RFS will encourage the investment and technological innovations needed to make production of ethanol from cellulose a commercial reality.

When you addressed the National Ethanol Conference last year, you stated, “Bottom line - alternative domestic sources of energy are good for our economy, good for our energy security … and are good for our environment.” We could not agree more. We thank you for your time and consideration.

Signed

M. Michael Rounds
Governor of South Dakota and Chair,
Midwestern Governors Association

Jennifer Granholm
Governor of Michigan and Vice Chair
Midwestern Governors Association

Source: Midwestern Governors Association

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Thursday, June 5, 2008

Blogs Offer Insight on Food and Fuel

In the one year that FoodandFuelAmerica has published "Good and Balanced Food and Fuel News!", we've had over 400,00 visitors who have viewed about 1.3 million pages on the site.

But in that same year, several other have emerged or became more popular discussing agriculture and biofuels on both sides of the food and fuel issue.

Here are some of our favorites.

American Fuels - Offers insightful factual information on Food and Fuel issues. Site includes an RSS feed as well as an email subscription option.

Good Fuels - A relatively new site from the Renewable Fuels Association. Offers daily news and commentary on biofuel news.

Advanced Biofuels and Climate Information

Advanced Biofuels and Climate Change - A blog from BIO that discusses biofuels and climate change issues.

Clean Fuels - A blog from the Clean Fuels Development Coalition. Offers periodic news and commentary on biofuel policy issues.

Corn Commentary - An agricultural blog from the National Corn Growers Association. The site offers daily insights on corn, agriculture and the events of the day that affect the nation’s corn producers.

Domestic Fuel - The blog provides news about the domestic fuel industry including ethanol and biodiesel. From time to time, other renewable fuels like wind and solar are discussed.

For our readers' convenience, recent entries from these blogs appear in the right-hand column of every page on our site. More web and blog links are available on our LINKS page

On the flip side, several new blogs have appeared which present the most negative and radical points of view.

Food B4 Fuel - Rumored to be the online efforts of the Grocery Manufacturer's Association's campaign against ethanol. Foodb4fuel blogs several posts each day denigrating America's farmers and efforts to reduce foreign oil dependence while blaming ethanol for all food cost increases.

Balanced Food and Fuel - A coalition of meat groups---most notably the American Meat Institute - runs this site to present an unbalanced view that ethanol is responsible for food cost increases and environmental damages.

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Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Gas Prices Climb Higher Each Week

The average price of regular gasoline jumped nearly 4 cents per gallon this week to $3.976 according to the Department of Energy. This is up nearly 82 cents from a year ago at this same time.

Diesel prices also remain high at $4.707 per gallon, up an astonishing $1.908 cents per gallon from a year ago at this time.

Higher gasoline prices impact motorists leaving drivers with less money to spend on food and shelter. And higher transportation costs get passed on to consumers in higher prices for most other goods and services.

Source: Department of Energy

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Tuesday, June 3, 2008

World Demand Fuels Exports

According to a new USDA report (pdf), agricultural exports are expected to reach a record $108.5 billion for fiscal 2008.

The projections mark a $7.5 billion increase from February's previous record forecast and are $26.5 billion above final 2007 exports.

Announcing the new numbers, Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer said:

“America’s increased export volume in bulk commodities like corn, other animal feeds and soybeans make agriculture the bright spot in the overall balance of trade.

U.S. producers are on track to export a record 63 million tons of corn, and set new export volume and value records for pork.

Export volumes and values are also up for many horticultural products with sales growth to Canada and the European Union being exceptionally strong.”

Grains and animal products exports account for two-thirds of the gains according to the new report.

Source: USDA, Outlook for US Agricultural Trade, May 2008 (pdf)

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Monday, June 2, 2008

This Little Piggy Makes Biodiesel

high plains bioenergy biodiesel pork fat

Waste pork fat is made into biodiesel at a new facility in Oklahoma.

Construction of a 30 million-gallon-per-year biodiesel plant was completed earlier this year.

Located next to Seaboard Foods' pork processing plant in Guymon, Oklahoma, the plant is able to make 1 gallon of biodiesel per each pound of waste animal fat.

The High Plains Bioenergy should be at full capacity later this month.

This video explains more about the plant, the biodiesel process and the economic value that this new facility brings to Oklahoma.

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Click HERE to go to the video directly.

Source: High Plains Bioenergy

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Sunday, June 1, 2008

Food and Fuel Quiz, 6-1-08

Food and Fuel in The News

Weekly Trivia Quiz, June 1, 2008

How good are you at Food and Fuel trivia for the week? Try our new weekly trivia quiz. Answers and scoring below the questions. Post your scores in the comments. Good luck!

1. Which of these is going to fuel the 2008 National Democratic Convention? a) Obama Oxygenated diesel? b) Hillary Hydrogen c) E85 ethanol?

2. What unusual source is this fuel coming from?

3. Corn growers asking its members to contact which trade group to tell them to stop their attacks on ethanol?

4. Buying American-made products is "patriotic patriotism". How big was the US trade deficit in 2007?

5. Was the average gas price LOWER or HIGHER than $3.92 cents this week?

6. How many billion miles less were driven on all public roads in March 2008 than March 2007?

7. Which University released a new study showing that ethanol was not the major factor in food price increases?

8. The president of the American Agriculture Movement got fired up over the Grocery Manufacturers Association's smear campaign against ethanol. Which two unusual words did he use to describe their tactics?

9. Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutcison introduced legislation to waive the RFS requirements. Did the Texas A&M study show that doing so WOULD or WOULD NOT significantly lower corn prices?

10. Campbell Soup CEO blamed ethanol legislation for causing less wheat acres to be grown. Did the USDA crop reports show this was a true statement?

BONUS QUESTION: (also worth 10 points)

B1. How much did the American Petroleum Institute spend on federal lobbying in 2007?

SCORE

Earn 10 points for each correct answer.

100 points : Food and Fuel Champ
80-90 points : Great! Keep it up.
60-70 points : Good, but you can do better.
10 - 50 points : Need to visit the site more often
0 points : Are you working for Big Oil?

ANSWERS

1. c) E85 Ethanol
2. Waste beer from Molson Coors
3. Companies which lead the Grocery Manufacturers Association
4. $711.6 billion
5. HIGHER, $3.937
6. 11 billion less miles
7. University of Nebraska - Lincoln
8. "dastardly" and "treasonous"
9. WOULD NOT significantly lower corn prices
10. The USDA showed it to be FALSE. Wheat acres were up in 2007 and also in the 2008 planting projections on the USDA website.

BONUS

B1. $4 million

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