The latest knock against ethanol claims the green fuel was fueling a spike in wheat prices as more growers were switching to corn acres to provide the feedstock for ethanol. But USDA’s Chief Economist Keith Collins says it just isn’t so.
This story from Farms.com says Collins claims global stocks are really behind the rise in wheat:
Collins took umbrage Monday with a weekend article in the Washington Post that attempted to peg high wheat prices to the demand for ethanol and the crunch for acres.
Collins spoke to more than 200 members of the National Farmers Union Monday at USDA headquarters. The Farmers Union has its fly-in this week in which farmers will lobby members of Congress on the farm bill. He drew a line between some of the factors affecting the overall U.S. economy and agriculture.
High grain prices and higher beef, pork and poultry prices have led to more criticism linking the price spikes to higher grocery bills and tying it all back to ethanol production. Collins acknowledged it is difficult to refute that the biofuel economy has spurred higher commodity prices, but more issues than the number of acres dedicated to biofuel feedstocks have played into the current wheat price spike.
“That has nothing to do with ethanol, Collins said. “That continues to astonish me.”
Collins noted this year’s wheat crop was planted before corn prices took off. The high price of corn had no factor in wheat planting, Collins said. The key factor stems from smaller crops in Canada, the Ukraine, Australia and the European Union, Collins said.
He went on to tell the gathering that there will be more competition next spring for corn acres instead of soybean and wheat, but he says the real driver on the prices continues to be the fact that wheat stocks worldwide are at their lowest point since USDA began tracking global stocks in 1960.
California-based grocery store giant Safeway is converting 23 of its stores to run on solar power. 
California Congressman Jerry McNerney joined Safeway officials on a tour of the Dublin store’s rooftop solar panel array. The unit is currently generating electricity to power the 55,000-square-foot retail facility.
The shingles might be black, but a leader in the commercial roofing business in California and Arizona is going green… by using bidiesel for its entire fleet of trucks in California.
Officials with Landmark Services Cooperative have announced they want to partner with the state of Wisconsin to build a soybean crushing facility near Evansville, WI., which could help the possibilities of a biodiesel facility going in to the same area.
The announcement of the new plant was attended by Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius. “Twenty to 25 years from today you are going to look back to today as a historic day,” she said.
U.S. Congressman Jerry Moran, also told the group he sees energy independence as key in fighting terrorism. When the United States reaches a point of being dependent on the middle East for energy production, we will all live in a safer place, he said.
Ethanol-giant POET has opened its 21st plant during a grand opening ceremony at its latest facility near Portland, Indiana. The 65-million-gallon-a-year makes POET the largest ethanol producer in the world cranking out an amazing 1.1 billion gallons annually.
“When we started our first facility in 1988 at one million gallons per year, we had no intentions of becoming the largest,” Jeff Broin, CEO of POET, said. “We simply realized that farmers needed additional uses for their crops and the country needed a clean-burning, domestic fuel. Now, with ten thousand farmer-owners and investors from all walks of life, we are developing the rural economy, improving the environment and reducing our nation’s dependence on foreign oil.”
U.S. Senator Richard Lugar, who spoke at the ceremony said, “POET Biorefining – Portland and the work of the community of Portland to support it are part of the vital effort to build a more secure America – an America less reliant on foreign sources of oil.”
If you’re not familiar with the Organization for Economic Co-operation (OECD) you probably will soon since they’ve released their 
The Lawrenceville, Georgia city fleet supervisor got a surprise when he converted his garbage trucks to biodiesel.
State, industry, and company officials gathered this week at a brand-new biodiesel plant near Farley, Iowa for the official ribbon-cutting ceremony for Western Dubuque Biodiesel’s $50 million plant.
“This plant has no carbon (emissions),” [Nile Ramsbottom, president of Renewable Energy Group Inc. – the company that built the plant -] said. “For every gallon produced here, it’s just one less gallon we have to import.”