Farm Foundation and USDA’s Office of Energy Policy and New Uses kicked off their Energy from Agriculture conference today in St. Louis. I was not able to attend and I have not seen any coverage of the event yet anywhere – even on USDA’s newsline. Seems that the WTO talks in Hong Kong is the bigger news story this week – that and the opening of the Japanese beef market. But, several of the top USDA head honchos were scheduled to be at the event today, including NRCS Chief Bruce Knight. I was supposed to interview the chief about USDA’s energy initiatives tomorrow (Thursday), but he had to reschedule so that will have to wait until next week. I will post that interview on Tuesday. Of course, the Secretary himself is in Hong Kong for the talks.
The agenda for the conference today included an assessment of current technologies, market impacts, energy production from non-traditional feedstocks and a review of the USDA energy program. The conference will conclude on Thursday at noon after a look at some energy from agriculture success stories and energy legislation.