RFA Ethanol Podcast

Sustainability Questions And Responses

Chuck Zimmerman

Alltech Aidan ConnollyOne of the highlight sessions at the Alltech Symposium is The Great Debate. This is a roundtable discussion and featured well known panelists Michael Boehlje, Professor at Purdue University, Lutz Goedde, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Philip Wilkinson, 2 Sisters Food Group. The moderator (pictured) was Alltech Vice President, Aidan Connolly. The subject was “Sustainability – For realists or for dreamers?”

Before Aidan got into the questions for the panel he reviewed the results of a pre-Symposium survey they conducted with Watt Publishing. Some of the interesting results I made note of included the following:

When asked “What does agricultural sustainability mean to your organization?” 64% of respondents said “staying in business” and 62% said “being environmentally friendly.” A majority said that their commitment to sustainability has remained the same or increased in 2009.

When asked “What are barriers to sustainability?” 68% said “cost,” 56% said “lack of information and management” and 35% said “lack of reliable measures.”

There is a lot more information from the survey which you can hear Aidan summarize in his opening comments which I recorded for you.

Listen to Aidan’s remarks here: alltech-symposium-debate-summary.mp3

You can also download the remarks here: Aidan Connolly Debate Remarks (mp3)

Alltech Symposium Photo Album

Alltech, Audio, Sustainability