Our USDA Under Secretary for Rural Development, Thomas Dorr was on hand here at the Farm Progress Show. In my interview with Sec. Dorr we talked about renewable energy. I asked him to talk about the upcoming “Advancing Renewable Energy: An American Rural Renaissance” conference that USDA is conducing with the Dept. of Energy in St. Louis, Oct. 10-12. He …
Ag Secretary On Energy
Secretary of Agriculture, Mike Johanns toured the Farm Progress Show today.
Dupont/Bunge Announce Treus
One of the big announcements here at the Farm Progress Show on opening day was from Bunge and Dupont who have a biotech alliance. Basically they’ve created a new brand, “Treus.” This is being done to “reflect their expansion of the companies’ soy collaboration beyond food and nutrition products to include industrial applications, biofuels and other opportunities.” Low linolenic soybean …
Debunking The Food vs. Fuel Myth
The incoming 1st Vice President of the National Corn Growers Association is Ron Litterer, Greene, IA. Here at the Farm Progress Show, I talked to Ron about the impact of using more and more corn for fuel and what his thoughts are on the issue of how that affects other uses of the commodity. Ron’s being interviewed here by Tom …
Wind Powering America
Helping me here at the Farm Progress Show is Kelcy Schroder, Iowa State University student. She’s here courtesy of the Monsanto, future ag journalist program, getting some new media experience. One of the first interviews she did was on wind power. Here’s her story: New Ag Markets are coming out everyday but Wind Energy is becoming more popular. Many of …
Monsanto’s Processor Preferred Program
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.