Our Secretary of Agriculture, Ed Schafer, made his first major public policy speech today at the Cattle Industry Convention in Reno, NV. I had the pleasure of meeting him and talked someone into snapping a photo too. I thought you might be interested in hearing an audio clip from his speech here this morning since he hit the subject of high feed prices and renewable energy head on.

Basically, he said that with the growth of cellulosic ethanol production there should be an easing of feed price pressure within a short time as the technology and non-food stocks form of ethanol production continues to rapidly develop.

He says there’s no way we can get away from the reality of the need to become more energy independent here in America.

He does admit that there will be higher feed prices in the short term but he stressed that the President’s energy bill provides an outline toward the future which is cellulosic.

You can listen to Secretary Schafer’s comments here: [audio:http://www.zimmcomm.biz/cbb/cic-08-schafer-renewable-fuels.mp3]