Next to productivity, sustainability is the word being used most often at the World Food Prize symposium this week to talk about what is needed in global production of both food and biofuels. The National Biodiesel Board formed a sustainability task force earlier this year, and one of the members of that task force is Victoria Carver with the Iowa …
World Bank President on Biofuels
The president of the World Bank made an appearance at the World Food Prize symposium Thursday on World Food Day and commented on world production of food and biofuels during a press conference. Robert Zoellick noted that some biofuels are more efficient than others, like sugarcane ethanol in Brazil, and he believes that “biofuels in the future are going to …
World Food Prize Winners on Food and Fuel
The ability of the world to grow enough agricultural crops to produce both food and fuel was a topic of discussion at the World Food Prize symposium in Des Moines on Thursday, which was also World Food Day. This year’s World Food Prize honorees, former Senators George McGovern and Bob Dole, pictured here with 2003 World Food Prize laureate Catherine …
Soy Biodiesel Means Fuel and Protein
Making soybeans into biodiesel is no food versus fuel competition – rather it is food AND fuel. “When you talk about soy biodiesel, you can actually burn the soy and eat it too,” says Jim Hershey, who is executive director for both the World Initiative for Soy in Human Health (WISHH) Program and the World Soy Foundation. During a World …
Credit Crisis Hot Topic at Farm Foundation Conference
The recent credit crisis in the country was certainly a hot topic of conversation at today’s Farm Foundation Transition to a Bioeconomy: Environmental and Rural Development Impacts Conference here in St. Louis, Mo. Cole Gustafson, a biofuels economist with North Dakota State University, says the current credit issues is going to make financing any venture a challenge, but he says …
Schafer Tells Farm Foundation to Get Ready for Breakthroughs
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer has just finished addressing the folks attending the latest Farm Foundation’s Transition to a Bioeconomy Conference going on in St. Louis, Mo. Schafer reminded the crowd how hard the current administration has worked to promote the biofuels field in this country, and thus, how hard it had worked to help the farmers who are …
Biotech for Biofuels
Pioneer Hi-Bred International continues to work on increasing agricultural productivity to both feed and fuel the world. Pioneer president Paul Schickler spoke on a panel at the World Food Prize symposium in Des Moines Wednesday and one of his points is that biotechnology can “address both the food availability issue as well as making a meaningful impact on our dependence …
Biofuels Talk at World Food Prize Event
These days, a dialogue about global food has to include biofuels – the two have become inseparable in recent years. At the World Food Prize Norman Borlaug Symposium this week in Des Moines many speakers are addressing how biofuels fit in the global food outlook. The keynote speaker for the symposium kickoff Wednesday was Sir Gordon Conway, who is chief …
Many Voices, Many Opinions, One Goal
You don’t have to agree to come up with agreeable solutions… that seems to be the theme for the latest Farm Foundation Transition to a Bioeconomy Conference. This is the third in a series of these Farm Foundation-sponsored meetings designed to get a handle on the changing farm economy and what the expansion of biofuels, particularly ethanol and biodiesel, means …
Questions, Discussions Dominate Transition Conference
How do we meet carbon reduction goals? How do we reduce our carbon footprint with biodiesel and ethanol without actually creating more carbon from the production of those biofuels? What are the trade-offs and benefits we could see between securing our food supplies and our energy security? And how do we make all these things work while not damaging the …