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 the existing ethanol and biodiesel plants are in pretty good shape as far as financing goes.
He says any new ventures will have to make sure they have solid financial fundamentals before they’ll be approved for any loan.
“Wall Street is nervous in general,” he says. And any one interested in getting financing for a new biofuels project will have to make sure they have their financial basics in good order and might need to diversify.
Listen to my conversation with Gustafson here: [audio:http://www.zimmcomm.biz/farm-foundation/Gustafson.mp3]
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.
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 on petroleum based products.”
Back at it this morning at the Farm Foundation’s Transition to a Bioeconomy: Environmental and Rural Development Impacts Conference in St. Louis, Mo. Today is another big day, as we’re hearing from another variety of speakers who bring a lot of different viewpoints to the table. 
two more meetings scheduled for this coming winter and spring (2009) focusing on the global aspects of the bioeconomy and how to get extension offices throughout the nation more involved.
The promise of new science and technology for increasing food and fuel production was part of a conversation panel at the 
Rodrigues says “absolutely we are going to improve new technologies and we are able to feed humankind and produce biofuels all together.” He notes that Brazil is a good example of what can be done in that regard and that there is a “myth” that production of sugarcane for ethanol is reducing the production of food. “This year we have a record grain production, but we also have record sugarcane production, record meat production and record production of dairy products -so there is no competition between sugarcane and food in Brazil and we can apply that in African, other Latin American and Asian countries.”
The amount of water that goes into growing the corn that goes into ethanol has been a big topic of conversation between those for and against production of the green fuel. That’s why it is a topic of conversation at the Farm Foundation’s Transition to a Bioeconomy: Environmental and Rural Impacts Conference in St. Louis this week. This gathering of government officials, academics and industry leaders is designed to take on the tough questions facing Rural America as it moves to a bioeconomy.
The keynote speaker for the symposium kickoff Wednesday was Sir Gordon Conway, who is chief scientific adviser for the UK. He talked about the spike in food prices over the past year and listed at least ten underlying causes, demand for biofuels being only one and he did not single it out as being a major culprit. He also pointed out the increasing global population, higher per capita income, increased demand for meat, higher prices for energy and fertilizer, and a shortage of arable land as some of the other factors.
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.
President of Farm Foundation, Neil Conklin, says bringing together a diverse group of government, academic and industry leaders, who might not agree on everything, is key to the success of these forums.