When you’re attending a farm event it’s always nice to get a farmer’s perspective on things. That’s what I did at the POET Project LIBERTY field day when I spoke with Todd Mathisen who farms just east of Emmetsburg, IA. I asked him what he thought of POET’s idea to harvest corn cobs for cellulosic ethanol production. He said, “I …
Pile Up Your Corn Cobs
The Director of Project LIBERTY for POET is Jim Sturdevant. He oversees all the activities across the company that are “pulling together to transform this ethanol plant into one of the nation’s first cellulosic ethanol plants.” The plant he’s referring to is POET’s Emmetsburg facility where they held a field day yesterday. He says they intend to replicate what they’re …
Corn Cobs Into Ethanol
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 …