USDA to step up efforts on ethanol

Absent from the food and fuel issue -- until just a couple of weeks ago -- was USDA. That changed some May 19 when USDA came out with some information on the issue, and USDA continued to lay out the facts before and during this week's FAO meeting in Rome.

Tom Dorr, under secretary for rural development at USDA, said Monday at the New Horizons Corn Utilization and Technology conference, that USDA was studying the issue and wanted to have the facts before entering the debate. Now that it has them, it's ready to help.

Nebraska Farmer's Lon Tonneson wrote a short piece on Dorr's comments here.