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 …
Take NAMA Pre-Conference Cause Marketing Survey
Here’s a call to action to help Steve Drake out. He’s doing a breakout session at the NAMA Convention on cause marketing. Like me, he wants some feedback before getting there. So . . . Please take his Cause Marketing Survey for the 2009 Agri-Marketing Conference Presentation. He will appreciate it. And thank you to everyone who has taken my …
Talking Social Media in DC
Here’s my happy group of social media students at the U. S. Grains Council office in Washington, DC. Pictured are Marri Carrow, USGC, Melissa George Kessler, NAWG, Mike Deering, USGC and Steve Mercer, U. S. Wheat Associates. We’ve been talking RSS, blogs, podcasts, Twitter, Facebook and more all morning. Like many ag groups today, these are looking at ways to …
Carbon Is New Ag Commodity
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 …
How Biofuels Policies Affect Trade
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 …
More Live Coverage of Transition To A Bio Economy Conference
We’re back in session at the Farm Foundation’s Transition To A Bio Economy Conference: Global Trade & Policy Issues. I’ll be posting live throughout the morning. Feel free to join in. Farm Foundation – Transition To A Bio Economy Conference
Loosening OPEC’s Grip On Price
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 …
European Renewable Energy Mandate
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, …
Biofuels Blogging Again
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 …
Ethanol May Change Meat Trading Patterns
Biofuels production in Canada will impact meat trading patterns according to research by Al Mussell, George Morris Centre, University of Guelph. He says that the increase in biofuels production will turn the country into an importer of grains instead of an exporter. Al was one of the speakers at the Transition To A Bio Economy Conference. He says that as …