Jeff Broin is CEO of POET and his company just continues to make innovations in the ethanol production business. Lately they’ve been very focused on what they call Project LIBERTY. The goal is to make cellulosic ethanol out of corn cobs. The company held a field day to showcase some of the equipment that companies like John Deere, Case IH …
Night POETry
I never get tired of taking sunset pictures. This is one from the highway just east of Des Moines, IA on my way to Emmetsburg this evening. You can see that the clouds were rolling in and they’re here now. It’s raining and thundering and lightning outside. I hope this all clears away by tomorrow morning since we’re supposed to …
POET Project LIBERTY
I think the last time I was in Emmetsburg, IA it was to visit with a local radio station for the Brownfield Network. It’s been a while. Well, that’s where I’m headed to attend tomorrow’s POET Project LIBERTY field day. The main purpose of this year’s event is to highlight advances in corn cob harvesting for cellulosic ethanol. I’ll be …
Schafer Addresses Farm Foundation Conference
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer has just finished addressing the folks attending the latest Farm Foundation’s Transition to a Bioeconomy Conference going on in St. Louis, Mo. Schafer reminded the crowd how hard the current administration has worked to promote the biofuels field in this country, and thus, how hard it had worked to help the farmers who are …
Conversations at World Food Prize
Panel discussions at the World Food Prize Norman Borlaug Symposium in Des Moines are called “conversations” and one on Wednesday focused on the “Promises and Challenges of Next-Generation Science and Technology.” Among the presenters was Brazil’s former minister of agriculture Roberto Rodrigues, co-chair of the International Biofuels Commission who made a very compelling case that both food and fuel production …
Making Sustainable Ethanol By Managing the Water
The amount of water that goes into growing the corn that goes into ethanol has been a big topic of conversation between those for and against production of the green fuel. That’s why it is a topic of conversation at the Farm Foundation’s Transition to a Bioeconomy: Environmental and Rural Impacts Conference in St. Louis this week. This gathering of …
World Food Dialogue for Solutions
Even though the word “crisis” is being used liberally here at the World Food Prize Norman Borlaug Symposium, there is a great deal of focus on solutions to feeding a growing global population. The “Global Agricultural Crisis of the 21st Century” was the topic of the keynote speaker for the symposium kickoff, Sir Gordon Conway, who is chief scientific adviser …
Transition to a Bioeconomy About to Begin
The latest in a series of Farm Foundation-sponsored meetings on how to transition the country to a bioeconomy is about to get underway this morning in St. Louis, Mo. Transition to a Bio Economy: Environmental and Rural Development Impacts is taking place at the Hyatt Regency-Union Station today and tomorrow, and your intrepid blogger will be here to update you …
Ethanol Shines in the Night
This is why I like to have a camera with me at all times. You just never know when you’re going to see something you’d like to share. Ethanol plants are cool in a lot of ways. They’re producing a domestic fuel solution to our energy problems and that lessens our dependency on foreign oil for example. But they can …
AAEC Launches National Media Campaign
Wow. Just when you thought we couldn’t possibly have any more new organizations working on the whole food and fuel thing, here comes another one. It’s the American Ag and Energy Council and they’re starting a new national media campaign using radio. I’m glad it’s available on their website too. Now if we could just get all these groups to …