Farmers and small business have found a crop to make them more money – clean energy. This according to a recent report from the Environmental Lay & Policy Center (ELPC) which just released “Farm Energy Success Stories” that demonstrate how a farm or small rural business adopted clean energy technologies and cut energy costs. Much of the monies that made these projects possible came from the Farm Bill’s Rural Energy for America Program (REAP). For example, Jim McBratney, who used a REAP grant to install a wind turbine at his Massachusetts nursery, says REAP is “…the right thing to do. It spurs industry and allows new, better technology to reach the market.”
Andy Olsen, a policy advocate for ELPC an organization that has been a public supporter of the program since its inception in 2003, said, “With the help of farmers, ranchers and rural small businesses, America can make great strides toward solving its energy problems. REAP is creating economic development, energy independence and a cleaner environment one farm at a time.”
The program has also generated new rural businesses. After Glen White slashed his energy costs by installing a solar water heating system on his Indiana farm, he began selling and installing solar energy systems on other farms and homes in the area.
Since 2003, REAP has funded over 3,000 clean energy projects, in 50 states that cover the clean energy spectrum – wind, solar, geothermal, biomass and energy efficiency. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), which oversees the program receives applications for more than three times the amount of funds available, and in February, President Obama raised the funding levels to the highest amount ever to $109 million.
Wind energy for rural America was an engaging topic during the educational session, “Harvesting the Wind,” held yesterday during the AG CONNECT Expo. The session provided an outlook for the wind energy industry in the states as well as offered information on projects suited for rural areas, such as farmers leasing out their land to companies to site windmills. The session was sponsored by 25×25, a nonprofit organization that believes our country can get 25 percent of our energy through renewable sources by 2025.
Presenters included Lisa Daniels, Executive Director and founder of Windustry, a nonprofit organization that specializes in developing community wind projects. These types of projects are owned by local members of the community and private investors, not wind turbines owned by a utility company. In addition, Steve Wegman, Director of South Dakota Wind Energy Association discussed how his organization is helping South Dakota increase its wind energy through rural projects, and Susan Sloan, Manager, Strategic Partnerships for the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), provided an industry overview that included current and proposed policy and programs to increase wind energy throughout the U.S.
A few interesting statistics that were shared during the session: the wind energy industry added an estimated 35,000 jobs last year; wind emits no CO2 and uses no water; and today the wind energy industry has the capacity to generate 31,000 megawatts of wind per year. One megawatt generates enough electricity to power 225-300 homes per year.
In 2008, the U.S. Department of Energy authored a report called “20% Wind Energy by 2030,” that is currently being used by the Obama administration for guidance on growing the wind industry. A copy of the report is available at www.20percentwind.org, and don’t forget to visit our AG CONNECT Flickr album.
One of the companies exhibiting their developmental corn cob harvest/collection equipment at the POET Project LIBERTY Field Day was Case IH. Representing them again this year was Sam Acker, pictured sitting in their booth during the speeches. I spoke to him to find out what’s new with Case IH in this area this year.
Sam says they’re demonstrating an Axial-Flow 8120 combine and biomass harvesting system. The combine features a massive 350 bushel grain tank and has an attached biomass cart which is receives power from the combine. The cart has an adjustable cleaning system to tailor the cob/stover sample how you want it.
You can listen to my interview with Sam below and watch a video clip of the equipment lined up and waiting demonstration starting with Case IH.
Have you ever wondered what switchgrass looks like? That’s it behind Cory Christensen, Director of Product Managment, Ceres, who was conducting Sunbelt Ag Expo presentations in the field. He says it’s a first season stand of their Blade energy crop. It was developed specifically for the southeast. Since it’s the first season for this crop they won’t harvest it at Sunbelt until next year. A mature yield for the crop is about 8 tons per acre of dry matter.
Switchgrass is native to the United States everywhere east of the Rockies. Ceres, has been working on varieties that will yield better in different growing environments though. Cory says that they don’t expect it to displace corn in Iowa but in the southeast with the difficulties in cotton and tobacco it becomes a viable alternative on open acres. He provides some estimates of what the crop can mean financially as the market for a fuel crop like switchgrass develops.
Cory describes the current market as a “developing market.” They have a map that shows developing opportunities where plants will be located to process energy crops. He says that biomass is a local business so you need to be located near a biorefinery. He also points to the USDA’s Biomass Crop Assistance Program that provides monetary assistance to facilitate the transition of eligible land to energy crops.
There are exhibits from land grant colleges throughout the southeast at Sunbelt Ag Expo. As a member of the Gator Nation I had to spend some time with the University of Florida.
One stop in their building was with a display for the Florida Center for Renewable Chemicals & Fuels. On hand to tell their story was Sheilachu P. Gomez, Assistant Director, pictured here. She says the Center is primarily for the development of the technology to convert biomass to ethanol and organic acids. They have two patents that have been purchased by two companies already (an ethanol patent to Verenium and organic acids patent to Myriant). They have a pilot plant for cellulosic ethanol production to optimize biomass conversion at the campus and have a planned plant to be located in Perry, FL. The last is a partnership with Myriant and Buckeye. In the future Sheila says they’re looking more into the value added products of the production process.
This week, Senators Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and John Kerry (D-Mass.) debuted the “Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act,” an 821-page bill designed to “create clean energy jobs, reduce pollution, and protect American security by enhancing domestic energy production and combating global climate change,” as well as creating millions of green energy jobs. Part of that includes reducing carbon emissions by 20 percent by the year 2020 and 80 percent by 2050 compared to 2005 levels.
“America’s farmers and ranchers did not fare that well in the House-passed climate change bill and they fare even worse in the Senate bill,” said American Farm Bureau Federation President Bob Stallman. “There are few benefits and even greater costs to agriculture and the American public.”
Stallman says the 20 percent target, which is higher than the House bill by three percent, is unrealistic and will lead to higher energy bills for all consumers. “The Waxman-Markey bill, passed narrowly by the House this summer, did at least include credits to farmers for carbon-storing or carbon management practices. The Senate bill does not guarantee any benefits to agriculture for carbon sequestration,” Stallman said.
Another major concern for Farm Bureau is that the Boxer-Kerry bill would not prevent the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from continuing to move forward to fully regulate all greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. The bill also does nothing to provide alternative sources of energy to fill the energy deficit left by the reduction in fossil fuels, nor does it prevent the EPA from using controversial indirect land use principles that penalize ethanol, according to Stallman.
“Both the Senate and House bills would bring higher fuel and fertilizer costs to American farmers and ranchers, which puts us at a competitive disadvantage in international markets with other countries that do not have similar carbon emission restrictions,” Stallman said. “For the future prosperity of the U.S. economy and American agriculture, climate change legislation must be defeated by Congress.”
I just signed up for Blog Action Day ‘09 which is October 15. Sign up here.
Blog Action Day is an annual event that unites the world’s bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day on their own blogs with the aim of sparking discussion around an issue of global importance. Blog Action Day 2009 will be the largest-ever social change event on the web. One day. One issue. Thousands of voices.
This year the topic is climate change. It doesn’t matter where you stand on the issue, the idea is to add your voice to the mix. So I would challenge you farmer bloggers in particular to sign up and make your voice heard. That’s what it’s all about.
BTW. I believe we have climate change. It’s called the “seasons.” I also believe our climate does change. We have things called “ice ages” for example. Is man causing change? I don’t think so and I really don’t think we can do much about it. However, I believe we should all be good stewards of the resources God has blessed us with. That’s why I’m such an advocate for renewable fuels like ethanol and biodiesel. Unfortunately, I think we have politicians and extremists who are trying to alarm the world public in order to advance their own social agendas. So I’m signed up and will right about this on “the day.” I hope you will too.
It may be dairy week for ZimmComm but that doesn’t mean it’s the only segment of the industry we’re working on. I’ll be introducing you to a new client later this week for example that is also new to agribusiness. In the meantime, this week’s program is about an old client. And I don’t mean old as in “they’re old.” I mean one of our long time clients, the Renewable Fuels Association.
As I posted earlier, RFA has a new logo. That prompted me to call on CEO Bob Dinneen, the Reverend of Renewable Fuels, to find out what the new look signifies for the organization. To start with, Bob says that RFA has doubled in staff size in the last 18 months with new staff in the area of communications, research and lobbying. He sees a bright future for ethanol and RFA even in spite of continuing challenges like the proposed RFS2 that EPA is working on.
So, get up to date with RFA and listen to this week’s podcast. The program ends with some music from Music Alley (formerly Podsafe Music Network). It’s a song titled, “The Milk Mix” by The Mighty Blue Ford. I hope you enjoy it and thanks for listening.
The ZimmCast is the official weekly podcast of AgWired. Subscribe so you can listen when and where you want. Just go to our a Subscribe page.
It was standing room only at the Town Hall Meeting featuring U.S. Senator John Thune at the 2009 South Dakota State Fair in Huron, S.D. last week. The senator was welcomed to a standing ovation after he was introduced, and from there, he presented a powerpoint detailing spending and deficit projections. However, it was the question-and-answer segment of the town hall meeting that drew the most interest.
Energy was the major topic of discussion at the forum, with many asking Senator Thune about the Renewable Electricity Standard (RES). Thune said he was open to supporting the RES, but he would not vote in favor of a bill that included either cap-and-trade pollution regulations or a climate-change proposal, as he believes they would raise energy costs for South Dakotans. So, what’s your take on the Renewable Electricity Standard? Has it been discussed at your town hall meetings? What’s your take?
Gen. Wesley Clark, Growth Energy, made a major announcement this morning at the Farm Progress Show. The organization is calling for country of origin labeling for fuel. I would call that the “COOL for fuel” initiative! Hey, we do it with food, why not fuel?
General Wesley Clark, Co-Chairman of Growth Energy, today called on the United States Congress and the White House to take action to dramatically enhance the market transparency of the nation’s fuel supply by requiring a national standard of country of origin labeling (COOL) for fuel.
The Label My Fuel initiative would create a COOL standard similar to requirements already in place for common consumer items, including apples, beef, cars and coffee. The goal is to help create consumer awareness of the costs and national security implications of the nation’s addiction to foreign oil.
Clark also unveiled Growth Energy’s labelmyfuel.com, which showcases the costs of American dependence on foreign oil, and serves to rally grassroots support for Congressional action on COOL for fuel legislation.
This soybean grower from Missouri doesn’t plant corn with the machine he’s standing next too. No way. But he does power it with a biodiesel blend and compete in tractor pulls across the United States. He’s Dennis Shramek and one of the competitors in this weekend’s NTPA Midwest Extreme Truck and Tractor Pull. Thank you to the United Soybean Board for inviting me out.
I met him early Friday evening long before his class was set to compete. Dennis grows soybeans and corn in central Missouri. He says they do a lot of no-till. Besides growing crops he’s got this AGCO DT225 which he competes with for points. He says they run over 3,000 horsepower! They blend their own biodiesel and jug it up and bring it along to the event. He gets better lubrication with biodiesel than pure low sulfur diesel. He says they’ve been competing with this tractor for about 6 years and they’ll compete at least 16 to 18 times a season.
Dennis is sure that the biodiesel industry will grow since it’s a clean fuel and helps the U.S. economy and helps reduce our dependence on foreign oil.
Calling all communications professionals. What is one of the most difficult challenges we face? Developing campaigns that will garnering consumer support and product adoption. An example of just how difficult this can be is the corn-ethanol industry. Consumer support has been dwindling for months and this has in part, been driving by media hostility and biased reporting.
So what is the most effective way to communicate your message to ensure your product survives in a crowded marketplace?
This question and more will be answered in the Communicating Renewables Webinar Series. This program is designed for those involved in or seeking information about the alternative energy arena. The webinar series is designed specifically to help arm communications professionals with the tools they will need to approach, head on, the challenging task of getting the positive message about renewable energy, technologies and research out to consumers, stakeholders, policy leaders, and the media.
Topics include:
» Web 2.0: how to harness the newest online tools to ensure your message reaches your target audience
» Strength in numbers: building coalitions with unlikely partners to add legitimacy to your messages
» Pit Bull Media Relations: how to pitch reporters who don’t support your product
» Grant Writing and Fundraising 101: how to bring additional funding to your organization
» Pitching Energy Reporters: the do’s and dont’s to securing coverage and featuring our very own Chuck Zimmerman
» Developing Effective Media Relationships: how to work with overburdened and time-starved reporters
Don’t miss this ground breaking and affordable webinar series. Most sessions are only $49. The first session is June 2, 2009. To learn more and to register go to www.CommunicatingRenewables.com.
I spoke with Paul Willems, BP Energy Biosciences Institute, one of our speakers at the Farm Foundation Transition To A Bio Economy Conference. I had met him previously at an earlier conference in the series.
Paul says the BP Energy Biosciences Institute was created as a place to apply modern biology to energy problems. He told us that from their perspective, the turbulant times we’re in right now are temporary and that the fundamental trends for the future are unchanged. Those being the supply of oil and gas and the growth and demand for energy products. He says that their CEO likes to say that, “the future has been delayed, it hasn’t been canceled.”
I think he made a good point in my interview with him that we shouldn’t panic. He says there are numerous technology efforts going on in the alternative fuels industry and that it would be a mistake to see that work evaporate because we live in a world of crisis. He urges a steady course toward the future. He also talks about the benefits of biotechnology in developing more efficient alternative fuel production but points out that the industry is still just in its infancy.
You can listen to my interview with Paul here:
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Biofuels like ethanol and biodiesel weren’t the only energy alternatives on the program at the Farm Foundation Transition To A Bio Economy Conference. We also had a presentation on wind energy from Mark Willers, Minwind Energy.
Mark says Minwind Energy was formed by a group of local farmers and businessmen in southwest Minnesota. He’d like people to understand that the electrical grid in the United States needs to be upgraded due to continuing increases in the use of electricity and how that is accomplished and funded is going to be an important issue. He thinks Americans want and need an energy policy that’s focused on efficiency. He says that Congress has extended production tax credits for wind turbines and that’s been helpful.
I thought he made some interesting points about how much news and discussion focuses on liquid fuel like gasoline when the largest energy use in America is from electricity. This is the sector of energy use that wind makes its contribution into.
You can listen to my interview with Mark here:
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The legislative guru for the National Biodiesel Board is Manning Feraci. He was on the Farm Foundation Transition To A Bio Economy Conference program.
He gave us an update on the current state of the biodiesel industry and the need for stable policies coming out of DC. He says that he sees some real opportunities now as some of the energy bill mandates are being implemented. He says it’s also a good time to get some structural reforms to the biodiesel tax incentive that will make it work better. I asked him about the carbon issue and he says that biodiesel is such an efficient fuel that it makes the product a good fit in helping obtain green house gas emissions reductions.
You can listen to my interview with Manning here:
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I think Joel Velasco, Brazilian Sugarcane Industry Association, had the quote of the day here at the Farm Foundation Transition To A Bio Economy Conference.
He said that “carbon is the new agricultural commodity” and that “our incentive is to produce less of it and get paid for it.” So, grow a crop, sell it and maybe earn some carbon credits? Who knows where all that will wind up.
Joel wanted people to know that biofuels can not only help mitigate climate change but build energy security. In Brazil they’ve managed to increase the use of ethanol from sugarcane to where they’ve displaced fifty percent of their liquid gasoline. They don’t have gas stations anymore he says, they have “fuel” stations. He says price is the key to the development and use of ethanol and today ethanol is half the price of gas in Brazil.
You can listen to my interview with Joel here:
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Seth Meyer is with the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute (FAPRI). He’s also a speaker here at the Farm Foundation’s Transition To A Bio Economy Conference.
He talked to us about how biofuels policies are affecting commodity prices and trade but he says there are a lot of other factors affecting export volume. For example, he says that even though we’ve been using more corn to make ethanol we’ve still been able to increase the amount of corn we’re exporting at the same time. However, whether we have biofuels policies or not other factors will come into play like weather, the price of oil and foreign demand.
You can listen to my interview with Seth here:
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We know that OPEC has had a monopoly control over the price of oil on the world market and we hope that the increase of more environmentally friendly biofuels will force that to change. However, David Zilberman, University of California, Berkeley, has created a model to measure how much impact we’re having.
I spoke to David here at the Farm Foundation’s Transition To A Bio Economy Conference. He wanted to show how ethanol in particular fits into the whole OPEC price situation. His model shows that by increasing the supply of fuel with ethanol you reduce OPEC’s ability to make money. He says that our ethanol production has raised the price of fuel in OPEC’s own countries while lowering it for everyone else around the world.
He says the promise of ethanol isn’t just it’s value to our environment but the ability to lessen OPEC’s grip on fuel prices.
You can listen to my interview with David here:
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Speaking on behalf of the European Commission To The United States here at the Transition To A Bio Economy Conference was Laurent Javaudin. Laurent sent me a message about coming to the conference via my Twitter feed! I guess that makes him my Twitter buddy.
His comments focused on the impact of EU mandates for renewable energy. To start with, in the EU they don’t have a mandate of a certain number of gallons of biofuels. Instead they are looking at requiring alternative energy sources like biofuels be a percentage of the fuel consumed and achieve it by 2020. He says that they don’t consider just biofuels but also other alternative sources of energy. The biofuels that are considered must be produced in a sustainable way. They also expect these fuels to obtain at least a 35 percent decrease in green house gas emissions.
He says that after the political decision of December 2008, the implementation phase of the mandate for the 27 nations of the EU is now a work in progress and they hope to have it kicking in by the second quarter of 2010.
You can listen to my interview with Laurent here:
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Mary Thompson, Farm Foundation, took my photo yesterday as I was doing some concluding work for the day here at their Transition To A Bio Economy Conference: Global Trade & Policy Issues.
That new Mac is getting a workout on the road and I’m loving it.
I’ll be posting more interviews through the day today and will be live tweeting at twitter.com/AgWiredLive.
Commodity Classic took place in Anaheim, CA. You'll find all of Chuck, Cindy and Joanna's photos here.
Happy Ag Week
It's time to thank our farmers and ranchers for all their hard work to feed us.
In this week's program I interview Linda Tank, CHS, Inc., who is Chair of the Agriculture Council of America, the group coordinating National Ag Day. Learn more about their activities, especially this week in Washington, DC.
Presenters included Lisa Daniels, Executive Director and founder of 
One of the companies exhibiting their developmental corn cob harvest/collection equipment at the POET Project LIBERTY Field Day was 
Have you ever wondered what switchgrass looks like? That’s it behind Cory Christensen, Director of Product Managment, 
There are exhibits from land grant colleges throughout the southeast at Sunbelt Ag Expo. As a member of the 
This week, Senators Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and John Kerry (D-Mass.) debuted the “
“America’s farmers and ranchers did not fare that well in the House-passed climate change bill and they fare even worse in the Senate bill,” said American Farm Bureau Federation President Bob Stallman. “There are few benefits and even greater costs to agriculture and the American public.”
I just signed up for 
It may be dairy week for ZimmComm but that doesn’t mean it’s the only segment of the industry we’re working on. I’ll be introducing you to a new client later this week for example that is also new to agribusiness. In the meantime, this week’s program is about an old client. And I don’t mean old as in “they’re old.” I mean one of our long time clients, the 
As I posted earlier, RFA has a new logo. That prompted me to call on CEO Bob Dinneen, the Reverend of Renewable Fuels, to find out what the new look signifies for the organization. To start with, Bob says that RFA has doubled in staff size in the last 18 months with new staff in the area of communications, research and lobbying. He sees a bright future for ethanol and RFA even in spite of continuing challenges like the proposed RFS2 that EPA is working on.
Gen. Wesley Clark, 
and 
This soybean grower from Missouri doesn’t plant corn with the machine he’s standing next too. No way. But he does power it with a biodiesel blend and compete in tractor pulls across the United States. He’s Dennis Shramek and one of the competitors in this weekend’s NTPA Midwest Extreme Truck and Tractor Pull. Thank you to the 
Calling all communications professionals. What is one of the most difficult challenges we face? Developing campaigns that will garnering consumer support and product adoption. An example of just how difficult this can be is the corn-ethanol industry. Consumer support has been dwindling for months and this has in part, been driving by media hostility and biased reporting.
I spoke with Paul Willems, BP Energy Biosciences Institute, one of our speakers at the Farm Foundation Transition To A Bio Economy Conference. I had met him previously at an earlier conference in the series.
Biofuels like ethanol and biodiesel weren’t the only energy alternatives on the program at the Farm Foundation Transition To A Bio Economy Conference. We also had a presentation on wind energy from Mark Willers, Minwind Energy.
The legislative guru for the 
I think Joel Velasco, Brazilian Sugarcane Industry Association, had the quote of the day here at the Farm Foundation Transition To A Bio Economy Conference.
Seth Meyer is with the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute (FAPRI). He’s also a speaker here at the Farm Foundation’s Transition To A Bio Economy Conference.
We know that OPEC has had a monopoly control over the price of oil on the world market and we hope that the increase of more environmentally friendly biofuels will force that to change. However, David Zilberman, University of California, Berkeley, has created a model to measure how much impact we’re having.
Speaking on behalf of the European Commission To The United States here at the Transition To A Bio Economy Conference was Laurent Javaudin. Laurent sent me a message about coming to the conference via 
Mary Thompson, Farm Foundation, took my photo yesterday as I was doing some concluding work for the day here at their Transition To A Bio Economy Conference: Global Trade & Policy Issues.
It's time to thank our farmers and ranchers for all their hard work to feed us.
