Farm Foundation is holding a forum at the National Press Club at this very moment to release a new study offering a comprehensive, objective assessment of the forces driving food prices.
Farm Foundation president Neil Conklin says what the study shows is that today’s food price levels are the result of complex interactions among multiple factors. “However, one simple fact stands out - economic growth and rising human aspirations are putting greater pressure on the global resource base,” Conklin says. “The difficult challenge for public and private leaders is to identify policy choices that help the world deal with the very real problems created by today’s rising food prices without jeopardizing aspirations for the future.”
The study was written by three Purdue University economists. Lead author Wally Tyner says they basically identified three broad sets of forces driving food price increases - global changes in production and consumption of key commodities, the depreciation of the U.S. dollar, and growth in the production of biofuels.
“We made no attempt to calculate what percentage of price changes are attributable to the many disparate causes and, in fact, think it is impossible to do so,” says Tyner. “But examining the interplay of the forces driving food prices gives a clearer picture of what has been happening.”
Read the full report here. There are some very interesting findings here and worth a read. Farm Foundation hopes this will add some reason to the food versus fuel debate which is running high on emotion and low on facts.
We did the interviews with Conklin and Tyner that are posted on the Foundation website. They are also posted below for your listening pleasure.
Conklin interview (runs 4:30)
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 6 or above) is required to play this audio clip. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Tyner interview (runs 9:00)
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 6 or above) is required to play this audio clip. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Also, Farm Foundation will host a free webinar on the report, July 30 at 1 p.m. EDT. More information is available on the Farm Foundation web site.
Here’s a little video from the Wyant/Johnson Farm Foundation benefit concert of Michael Peterson singing part of the song that brought him and New Holland together - “Down on the Farm.”
It’s hard to appreciate from this little thumbnail photo just what a cool venue the Sara Wyant/Allan Johnson lake house was for the Farm Foundation Michael Peterson concert Friday night. You have to go look at the photo album to get a bigger view.
First of all, it is a beautiful house. And it has these three balcony levels so everyone had a perfect view of Michael set up lakeside and the acoustics were excellent.
The event was made possible by our very good friend Gene Hemphill and New Holland. It was his idea two years ago to offer a private concert with Michael to the highest bidder at the NAFB Farm Foundation auction. In 2006, farm broadcaster Pam Jahnke of Madison, WI bought one package and used it for a Wisconsin FFA fundraiser, while the National Farmers Union matched her bid and bought another for their annual convention. Gene says they will offer it up again at the 2008 convention in November.
People from all over the country attended the concert, including some corn guys from Illinois and Kansas who might be familiar faces to AgWired readers. We also had the famous singer and National Biodiesel Board executive director Joe Jobe and his family, as well as some people from as far away as Washington DC, like Karen Coble Edwards who was visiting with Charlene Finck of Farm Journal down at the lake and they both came with their families.
I did a little audio interview after the concert with Sara and Allan, Garry Niemeyer and Ken McCauley, Gene and Michael that you can listen to here.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 6 or above) is required to play this audio clip. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
If we were a radio station, this would make a great promo spot.
I had the honor of being introduced by Michael Peterson at a private concert held this past weekend at the Lake Ozark home of Sara (Agri-Pulse) Wyant and her husband Allan Johnson with USDA. He said some very nice things about me and Chuck and AgWired and I fortunately had a recorder running at the time.
He called AgWired “the largest and most influential agriculture blog site in the world!” Wow! I like that. “They’re doing a lot around the country to help share the ‘no-spin’ truth about agriculture,” Michael said.
Listen to Michael’s AgWired promo here:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 6 or above) is required to play this audio clip. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Country music singer Michael Peterson made some young fans happy at a private party at Missouri’s Lake of the Ozarks Friday night, singing autographs on copies of his “Down on the Farm” CD supplied to guests courtesy of New Holland. But he also got an autographed memento of his own from the event.
The party was a benefit for Farm Foundation, so immediate past chairman (and party host) Sara Wyant of Agri-Pulse Communications, and Farm Foundation communications director Mary Thompson presented Michael with a book commemorating the foundation’s 75 year history that was signed by some of the organization’s representatives.
Sara presented the book to Michael in gratitude for his performance and in recognition of his tremendous contributions to rural America.
The Farm Foundation focuses on economic and policy issues impacting agriculture, the food system and the people of rural America. The organization works as a catalyst, using conferences, workshops and other activities to bring stakeholders of all types together to identify and understand forces that will shape the future for our industry.
To find out more - or to make a contribution (which they would greatly appreciate) - go to farmfoundation.org.
While Chuck was busy chasing spotted horses in Mississippi this weekend, I got to go to a really GREAT party at beautiful Lake of the Ozarks, featuring our good friend Michael Peterson.
Our gracious hosts were Sara Wyant and Allan Johnson, who bought a private concert with Michael at the NAFB Foundation auction last November, courtesy of New Holland and the still-not-retired Gene Hemphill.
It was just a wonderful event, with about 100 of Sara and Al’s friends and neighbors, including lots of familiar faces in the agribusiness world. The event was also a fundraiser for the Farm Foundation, for which Sara has been serving as chairman.
To see more photos from the event, check out this Flickr Photo Album:
Here’s my wrap up post from the Farm Foundation Transition To A Bio Economy conference. I learned a lot from the presentations here and hope the interviews have helped you too.
I spoke with board member, Cornelius Gallagher, who helped summarize the event. He says the conference brought together world class leaders who were able to listen to some fantastic presentations. I’ve posted interviews with almost all of them so please scroll back through them.
Corny, as he likes to be called, says that the conference accomplished what it was supposed to which is bringing leaders together to foster knowledge and provide attendees with a better understanding in a broad sense of the bio economy.
The next conference in the series will be held October 15-16 in St. Louis.
You can listen to my interview with Corny here:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 6 or above) is required to play this audio clip. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
What we know and what we need to know was Peggy Caswell’s, USDA-ERS, topic here at the Farm Foundation Transition To A Bio Economy conference. She says we need to know things about how farmers or the providers of biofuels and feed stocks are going to have to change the way they do business. She used the example of having to look at different types of contracts and financing.
She said that ethanol companies are going to need a consistent and reliable source of product and that farming by nature is very variable. So farmers will be taking big risks and that’s why contracting will be necessary. She also calls for a lot more research, something we heard earlier in the program from other speakers.
You can listen to my interview with Peggy here:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 6 or above) is required to play this audio clip. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
We heard from Chevron here at the Transition To A Bio Economy conference since according to Paul Bryan, the company has made a major commitment to biofuels. He says they created a biofuels business unit about 2 years ago. Their focus is on 2nd generation biofuels that use non-food crops.
His talk focused on the integration in the biopetroleum business. He describes that as using bio-derived fuels that work with the existing petroleum infrastructure. One of the projects they’re involved with uses micro algae and he’s saying that it will be about 5 to 15 years before it’s in full volume production.
You can listen to my interview with Paul here:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 6 or above) is required to play this audio clip. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
The issue of investment and financing for ethanol plants and bio refineries in general was addressed today by Chris Groobey, Baker & McKenzie, LLP. He works on project financing with investors and lenders and mostly in renewable fuels. He painted a pretty bleak picture.
In fact, he says the New York investment community is not interested in biofuels right now. He says they’re tapped out and that ethanol and biodiesel are not of interest to them at all. So with that being said, what’s next? He says there needs to be a combination of making more money from existing plants by co-locating other facilities or finding other sources of income from the same plant. He also thinks there needs to be more and bigger business structures.
He says this means we’re returning to more traditional models of rural development that take a longer term view. He recommends growing local agriculturally skilled management teams with people who understand farm risk.
You can listen to my interview with Chris here:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 6 or above) is required to play this audio clip. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
We had two Under Secretaries talk to us here today. It was my first time to meet our USDA Under Secretary for Research, Education and Economics, Gale Buchanan. He was here at the Transition To A Bio Economy conference to talk about the need for research in a growing bio economy. In fact, he sees a need for a tremendous amount of research to address the opportunities presented by the whole energy picture.
He also talked about how impressed he was at last week’s Bio Energy Awareness Days in Washington, DC where 35 different universities made presentations.
You can listen to my interview with Gale here:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 6 or above) is required to play this audio clip. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
When it comes to infrastructure needs for a bio economy our rural road system is a key component. To speak about it here at the Transition To A Bio Economy conference we heard from Frank Dooley, Purdue University. He sees a big increase in grain production, primarily in the midwest. With that comes a growing demand for transportation. He thinks we should be concerned because most of the corn will be moved by truck and that’s going to impact rural roads. He also sees an increase in rail transportation but not significantly.
He’s worked on a project with the state department of transportation in Indiana to study traffic flow changes and suggests that more of this type of research needs to be done. He says that a 100 million gallon ethanol plant will have up to 110 trucks in per day.
You can listen to my interview with Frank here:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 6 or above) is required to play this audio clip. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
We hear a lot about the growth in ethanol production but do you know how it gets from the plant to where it needs to be to enter our fuel supply? How about rail car? During our discussion on the infrastructure needs of a Transition To A Bio Economy, we heard from Paul Hammes, Union Pacific Railroad. Of course his focus was on rail infrastructure and as it relates to biofuels. Specifically, he spoke to the different pieces of that supply chain like rail cars, the rail network and unload/load capacity.
He says that the biofuels industry development happened quite quickly and that put some pressure on their network. In particular, it presented challenges at the destination markets for the unloading of ethanol. One of the challenges has been that ethanol is moved in small units and in concentrated areas. He see future challenges as developing rail infrastructure to meet capacity demands and more development at destination terminals.
You can listen to my interview with Paul here:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 6 or above) is required to play this audio clip. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
My good friend Tom Dorr, USDA Under Secretary for Rural Development, was our opening speaker for day two of Farm Foundation’s Transition To A Bio Economy conference. He was glad to see the golden ZimmComm microphone once again! We visited for a while before the session got started.
He says that rural policy is more important and timely a topic now than it has ever been, especially as we’re coming off the finalization of the 2008 Farm Bill. Some reasons include the huge growth in the deployment of broadband internet access and the demand for food and energy. With growth in rural communities people are starting to think differently when it comes to policy issues like conservation.
He pointed out that 95 percent of all rural income is off farm and that there haven’t been any new jobs in agriculture in recent years. So he says we need to look at unique uses of local resources for development but that development creates demands on infrastructure like water and sewer. He says that by meeting goals of replacing oil with renewable energy sources we’re creating a significant rural investment opportunity. So the question he poses to communities is “Are they willing to step up?”
Dorr has a long history with the Farm Foundation since he was a member of the round table prior to his appointment in Washington, DC. He also talks about the Foundation’s rural development opportunity tours and one that’s planned for this summer in Europe where he’ll be participating in a farmer to farmer dialogue.
You can listen to my interview with Tom here:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 6 or above) is required to play this audio clip. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Okay. This is the last one for today. But there’s more to come tomorrow.
Sarah Brechbill, Purdue University, got to put her masters degree project on the stage today here at the Farm Foundation’s Transition To A Bio Economy conference. She looked at the cost to get biomass to a plant and specifically looked at switchgrass and corn stover.
She says that there’s really no one answer to what’s best for everyone. However, she did find that corn stover was generally cheaper. One reason is that it’s already being grown.
You can listen to my interview with Sarah here:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 6 or above) is required to play this audio clip. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
We hear a lot about co-products with ethanol production like the DDGS but what about in cellulosic ethanol production? Well, Danielle Julie Carrier, Arkansas State University is doing work on that subject.
I was very interested to hear that there are some possibilities. She’s working with switchgrass and they’ve found that if you wash the feedstock prior to the pre-treatment for ethanol production that you get a water mix with flavonoids which help reduce bad cholesterol. Co-products like this have potential and may help make the production of cellulosic ethanol more attractive.
You can listen to my interview with Julie here:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 6 or above) is required to play this audio clip. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
I know you’re getting a healthy dose of biofuels here on AgWired today but it all has to do with agriculture and rural America so I hope you’re enjoying it. I’ve been learning a lot, including just how much work the Farm Foundation does.
During our last session of the day here at the Farm Foundation, Transition To A Bio Economy Conference, our speakers talked about some feedstock and co-product issues of ethanol production. First up was Abhishek Goel, North Dakota State University. He did work on using dry peas to supplement corn in an ethanol plant. The idea was to reduce supply risk and increase profitability.
He says that in North Dakota corn supply is variable and since the state is the biggest producer of dry peas it seemed like a natural place to start. The work was done in 2007 and although prices have certainly changed he believes there are opportunities to supplement corn with other feedstock options.
You can listen to my interview with him here:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 6 or above) is required to play this audio clip. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
On the subject of locating a biorefinery we had another presentation on the subject here at the Transition To A Bio Economy conference. This one was by David Perkis, Purdue University.
He says the purpose of his work is to answer questions that local decision makers have such as, Where to locate plants?, What do we have to prepare for?, What can we do to entice a plant to our area? and Do we have a chance? He says that factors in having an optimal location for an ethanol plant is access to sufficient corn stover and transportation distances.
You can listen to my interview with David here:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 6 or above) is required to play this audio clip. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Besides those out working in the industry we also heard from some university students today at the Transition To A Bio Economy conference. Lance Andrew Stewart is a grad student at the University of Tennessee. He did a very technical presentation on locating ethanol plants.
His work focused on the location determinants that attract potential plants in certain areas. He says that factors include, access to feedstocks like corn and locating away from an existing plant. He also made a point of saying that although plants can be very helpful to a rural community they must have enough infrastructure to support one.
You can listen to my interview with Lance here:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 6 or above) is required to play this audio clip. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
We had USDA Rural Development represented here at the Transition To A Bio Economy conference by Tony Crooks. He works with their rural business cooperatives program and has done a lot of work with communities in the area of ethanol and biodiesel.
The challenge he says we have today in rural communities is the large capital outlay to get a biorefinery started so USDA is looking at creative ways to help them. He highly suggests that a community have a community development plan so they can better decide if a plant would be in their best interest. Ways that USDA Rural Development can help is with grants and guaranteed loans. He says they’re looking for communities who need financial assistance, especially in the second generation cellulosic area.
You can listen to my interview with Tony here:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 6 or above) is required to play this audio clip. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Cindy attended the AEM AgExecutive Forum in St. Louis and captured it in photos.
Dairy Expo Talk
This week's program features a couple of interviews from World Dairy Expo.
First up is Stephanie Gable, who talks about her new job with Novus International, then it's Lindsay Hill, who talks about the new website and brand decisions at ABN Radio.
Farm Foundation is holding a forum at the National Press Club at this very moment to release a new study offering a comprehensive, objective assessment of the forces driving food prices. 
The study was written by three Purdue University economists. Lead author Wally Tyner says they basically identified three broad sets of forces driving food price increases - global changes in production and consumption of key commodities, the depreciation of the U.S. dollar, and growth in the production of biofuels.
It’s hard to appreciate from this little thumbnail photo just what a cool venue the Sara Wyant/Allan Johnson lake house was for the Farm Foundation Michael Peterson concert Friday night. You have to go look at the photo album to get a bigger view. 
The event was made possible by our very good friend Gene Hemphill and New Holland. It was his idea two years ago to offer a private concert with Michael to the highest bidder at the NAFB Farm Foundation auction. In 2006, farm broadcaster Pam Jahnke of Madison, WI bought one package and used it for a Wisconsin FFA fundraiser, while the National Farmers Union matched her bid and bought another for their annual convention. Gene says they will offer it up again at the 2008 convention in November.
People from all over the country attended the concert, including some corn guys from Illinois and Kansas who might be familiar faces to AgWired readers. We also had the famous singer and National Biodiesel Board executive director Joe Jobe and his family, as well as some people from as far away as Washington DC, like Karen Coble Edwards who was visiting with Charlene Finck of Farm Journal down at the lake and they both came with their families. 
If we were a radio station, this would make a great promo spot.
Country music singer Michael Peterson made some young fans happy at a private party at Missouri’s Lake of the Ozarks Friday night, singing autographs on copies of his “Down on the Farm” CD supplied to guests courtesy of New Holland. But he also got an autographed memento of his own from the event.
The party was a benefit for 
Sara presented the book to Michael in gratitude for his performance and in recognition of his tremendous contributions to rural America. 
While Chuck was busy chasing spotted horses in Mississippi this weekend, I got to go to a really GREAT party at beautiful Lake of the Ozarks, featuring our good friend Michael Peterson. 
Our gracious hosts were Sara Wyant and Allan Johnson, who bought a private concert with Michael at the NAFB Foundation auction last November, courtesy of New Holland and the still-not-retired Gene Hemphill.
Here’s my wrap up post from the Farm Foundation Transition To A Bio Economy conference. I learned a lot from the presentations here and hope the interviews have helped you too.
What we know and what we need to know was Peggy Caswell’s, USDA-ERS, topic here at the Farm Foundation Transition To A Bio Economy conference. She says we need to know things about how farmers or the providers of biofuels and feed stocks are going to have to change the way they do business. She used the example of having to look at different types of contracts and financing.
We heard from Chevron here at the Transition To A Bio Economy conference since according to Paul Bryan, the company has made a major commitment to biofuels. He says they created a biofuels business unit about 2 years ago. Their focus is on 2nd generation biofuels that use non-food crops.
The issue of investment and financing for ethanol plants and bio refineries in general was addressed today by Chris Groobey, Baker & McKenzie, LLP. He works on project financing with investors and lenders and mostly in renewable fuels. He painted a pretty bleak picture.
We had two Under Secretaries talk to us here today. It was my first time to meet our USDA Under Secretary for Research, Education and Economics, Gale Buchanan. He was here at the Transition To A Bio Economy conference to talk about the need for research in a growing bio economy. In fact, he sees a need for a tremendous amount of research to address the opportunities presented by the whole energy picture.
When it comes to infrastructure needs for a bio economy our rural road system is a key component. To speak about it here at the Transition To A Bio Economy conference we heard from Frank Dooley, Purdue University. He sees a big increase in grain production, primarily in the midwest. With that comes a growing demand for transportation. He thinks we should be concerned because most of the corn will be moved by truck and that’s going to impact rural roads. He also sees an increase in rail transportation but not significantly.
We hear a lot about the growth in ethanol production but do you know how it gets from the plant to where it needs to be to enter our fuel supply? How about rail car? During our discussion on the infrastructure needs of a Transition To A Bio Economy, we heard from Paul Hammes, Union Pacific Railroad. Of course his focus was on rail infrastructure and as it relates to biofuels. Specifically, he spoke to the different pieces of that supply chain like rail cars, the rail network and unload/load capacity.
My good friend Tom Dorr, USDA Under Secretary for Rural Development, was our opening speaker for day two of Farm Foundation’s Transition To A Bio Economy conference. He was glad to see the golden ZimmComm microphone once again! We visited for a while before the session got started.
Okay. This is the last one for today. But there’s more to come tomorrow.
We hear a lot about co-products with ethanol production like the DDGS but what about in cellulosic ethanol production? Well, Danielle Julie Carrier, Arkansas State University is doing work on that subject.
I know you’re getting a healthy dose of biofuels here on AgWired today but it all has to do with agriculture and rural America so I hope you’re enjoying it. I’ve been learning a lot, including just how much work the Farm Foundation does.
On the subject of locating a biorefinery we had another presentation on the subject here at the Transition To A Bio Economy conference. This one was by David Perkis, Purdue University.
Besides those out working in the industry we also heard from some university students today at the Transition To A Bio Economy conference. Lance Andrew Stewart is a grad student at the University of Tennessee. He did a very technical presentation on locating ethanol plants.
We had USDA Rural Development represented here at the Transition To A Bio Economy conference by Tony Crooks. He works with their rural business cooperatives program and has done a lot of work with communities in the area of ethanol and biodiesel.
This week's program features a couple of interviews from World Dairy Expo.
