Hello from the Farm Progress Show in Amana Colonies, IA. This is one of the biggest farm shows in the United States. Over 460 companies are on display out here in the middle of a corn field. The weather is not cooperating yet. It’s raining and muddy but I’m sure it will clear up over the next day or so.
Ethanol in the Family
Father and son ethanol racing team Dan and Jamie Schwartzkopf were at the American Coalition for Ethanol meeting last week in Kansas City and I got a chance to chat with them about Schwartzkopf Racing and Wyoming Ethanol. Dan is the general manager of the ethanol plant, which has Renova Energy as its parent company. They also talk about the …
Souped-up Supra
At the American Coalition for Ethanol meeting last week, Brad Mayo of Nashville had his souped-up 1997 Toyota Supra on display, which he has fine-tuned to run on up to 95 percent ethanol. And not just run … run FAST! (Only in a street car race, of course – otherwise he drives the posted speed limit!) Brad was working on …
ACE is the Place For Governors
The American Coalition for Ethanol meeting in Kansas City featured the governors of rival states, one Democrat and one Republican, who both agree on the importance of ethanol to the economy. Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius told the record crowd attending the 19th annual ACE conference that to be successful, “our commitment to biofuels has to be real. It can’t just …
Senator Talent Receives ACE Award
Missouri Senator Jim Talent was on hand today to help promote the Paseo Biofuels/Cargill biodiesel plant announcement in Kansas City. He was certainly the biofuels Senator today.
Interview With Cargill’s Teddy
Wayne Teddy is the President of Cargill’s Grain & Oilseed Crush Supply unit for North America. He was on hand this morning at the Paseo Biofuels announcement.
ADM on Food vs. Fuel
Archer Daniels Midland, better known as simply ADM, is the single largest ethanol producer in the nation and a significant biodiesel producer as well – in addition to producing feed and food products from both corn and soybeans. According to the company’s international website, they are one of the world’s largest agricultural processors of soybeans, corn, wheat and cocoa. We …
Michigan Governor Pumps Ethanol
Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm was out pumping for ethanol Thursday at a Marathon gas station in Ypsilanti. Granholm joined Indy Racing League drivers Buddy Rice, Vitor Meira, Jeff Simmons and Kosuke Matsuura, arriving for the event with Simmons in a special 2-seater IRL show car. The event, sponsored by the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council, was the latest in a …
Getting to Know 25x’25
The alliance known as 25X’25 is gaining more visibility with its goal to have 25 percent of the nation’s energy supply come from renewable resources by the year 2025. Major organizations, congressional leaders and companies are backing the coalition and the momentum is growing. At the Ag Media Summit in Portland this week, Chuck sat down with Mike Bowman, one …
Developing Corn For Ethanol
I just finished up a day at Syngenta Biotechnology, Inc. in Raleigh, NC. Although I blogged the event on AgWired I did run into an interesting story about ethanol. Syngenta is developing an amylase enzyme trait into corn which they hope to have on the market by 2008. In this picture a Syngenta scientist is conducting a simple iodine test for starch. That’s because the amylase enzyme speeds up starch conversion to sugar.