It has been a biofuels kind of day for ZimmComm. Cindy and I have been here in Kansas City all day. I first went to the announcement ceremony for the proposed Cargill/Paseo Biofuels biodiesel plant which would be built adjacent to the existing Cargill soybean processing facility in north Kansas City. Then I joined Cindy at the American Coalition for Ethanol conference which is also taking place here. You can find more coverage on Domestic Fuel.

Wayne Teddy is the President of Cargill’s Grain & Oilseed Crush Supply unit for North America. He was on hand this morning at the Paseo Biofuels announcement.

I got to interview Wayne after his presentation. We moved into the shade because it was another very hot day in Missouri. Wayne says that while the equity drive is taking place for the new company there will be some negotiating of the final details of the joint venture and expects a groundbreaking by the fall. He says the proposed joint venture facility will mean more jobs, more demand for Missouri soybeans and be a flagship facility for Cargill.

I also asked him about whether there is a food vs. fuel concern on the part of Cargill. He says the supply of feedstocks is currently sufficient to meet the demands of both. He acknowledged that some people perceive Cargill as fueling this debate but that although it is something that should be discussed, Cargill is investing very heavily in biofuels and that it’s not an issue of Cargill being anti-biofuels but that agriculture view the whole issue of biofuels from a reasonable perspective.

You can listen to my interview with Wayne here: Wayne Teddy Interview (5 min MP3)

After doing some work here at the ACE conference Cindy headed on up the road to Ames, IA for a media day with Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica, Inc. on Porcine Circovirus which I’m sure we’ll have some information on here for you. I’m heading back to the office for a day before leaving to attend the IFAJ Congress. You’ll be getting a lot of international perspective starting this weekend.