I’m attending the 2007 Alltech International Feed Industry Symposium and covering it primarily on Domestic Fuel sister site, AgWired. I thought you might enjoy hearing an interview I conducted with Dr. Pearse Lyons, founder of Alltech. This is a company that produces animal feed additives. The theme of their Symposium is “The New Energy Crisis: Food, Feed, or Fuel?” Right away I was intrigued to see what his take would be on the price of corn and the mandate for ethanol production.

He says that it’s ironic that back in 1980 when he founded his company they were involved in brewing and making alcohol. From there though the company branched out into the animal feed additives arena. Now he feels like things are coming full circle since the challenge in producing ethanol is how to make the process more efficient while developing processes using new biomass products instead of corn. He sees a really bright future for Alltech as a leader in this business.

I also like his comments about our government and the decisions that are driving the development of ethanol production. As he says, it doesn’t matter where you stand on certain issues, the government isn’t stupid. The mandate to increase production of biofuels like ethanol is forcing companies like his to increase the pace at which they’re developing products and processes to meet the mandate. It’s not only good for business but it means we’ll become less reliant on dwindling supplies of oil and other traditional energy sources much faster. That’s also good for our environment and our country.

You can listen to my interview with Dr. Pearse Lyons here: [audio:http://www.zimmcomm.biz/alltech/alltech-symposium-07-lyons.mp3]

If you’re interested I’m putting all my photos at the Alltech Symposium in the Alltech 2007 International Feed Industry Symposium Photo Album.