Food, fuel and facts

A great article by Kerry Hoffschneider appeared recently in the York News-Times, which was written following this year's Ag Adventure Tour, a partnership between the Nebraska LEAD Alumni Association with Leadership Omaha to "provide an opportunity for rural and urban leaders to connect and build a bridge of communication across the great state of Nebraska," as Hoffschneider put it.

Hoffschneider covered a number of very good topics, and a few paragraphs are included below.

For the full article,  click here.

In terms of agriculture, I'm not going to apologize for getting information from people directly involved in their industry about their industry. Why would I ask a toaster maker about how cars are designed? Agriculture is no different. Yet, there is sometimes a strange level of expectation from some circles that is making people in agriculture feel as though they need to apologize for working and developing their industry. It's really interesting that we want to, for example, have the latest and greatest cell phones or computers, but when those in the business of farming want to stay cutting edge, there are groups out there who want them to farm like it was still 1920 or sadly, no longer farm or produce livestock at all.

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That brings me to the ethanol issue and the global picture. On the way home from the Ag Adventure Tour, I had lots of corn to look at from outside my car window and a lot of time to think. I kept thinking about the recent oil spill. I also thought about some email forwards I've received showing pictures of Middle East oil sheiks with their diamond-studded Mercedes and palaces. I also started thinking about men and women, fighting in those countries and dying as we speak. I thought, you know, ethanol makes sense. It just does. I hearkened back to what Hagstrom said on the tour, he fervently motioned his hand towards the window and told the group, “Would you rather try and draw oil from a dead dinosaur somewhere or make fuel with something that we can replenish every year that grows right here at home?

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Here's another thought to ponder, ethanol is not typically made from corn that should be used for human food. This helps extinguish the “food vs. fuel” debate. Also, as ethanol production uses only the starch of the kernel, the remaining parts of the corn create a by-product called distiller's grain that is rich in proteins and nutrients, making it great feed for livestock. Oh, and according to the Nebraska Corn Board, corn for ethanol use in Nebraska increased from about 200 million bushels in 2003-04 to an estimated 645 million this year and projected 684 million next year. Despite that increase, exports in 2009-2010 were right at the average.

That's just a sample, be sure to read the full article.