Grazing/haying CRP acres stuck in court

The current court mess involving opening Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) acres for haying and grazing continues after U.S. District Judge John Coughenour yesterday extended his temporary restraining order.

The court case is in Seattle involves USDA's May decision to open up all CRP acres for the Critical Feed Use program after the primary nesting season ends for grass-nesting birds. USDA did this to provide additional feed options for livestock producers facing higher costs for grains and other feed ingredients.

According to an article on AgWeb.com, the judge ordered USDA and members of the National Wildlife Federation, which filed the lawsuit to stop haying and grazing, to find a compromise by noon on Tuesday. He suggested that some acres be released, maybe up to 2.5 million, as part of a compromise.

Several livestock groups joined in filing a brief supporting opening the acres, including the National Pork Producers Council, National Cattlemen's Beef Association and Nebraska Cattlemen. The National Wildlife Federation was joined in the lawsuit by several state affiliates.

In his blog, DTN's Chris Clayton said the judge made it clear he believes USDA violated its regulations and a federal law requiring an environmental impact study before releasing CRP acres in this case. Performing such a study would take a lot of time, including being open for public comment. That would come to late for livestock producers looking for additional feed options.

Voters support ethanol; blame oil for higher food prices

All of the efforts put toward blaming ethanol for a variety of ills has “failed to move the country,” according to a survey conducted by two polling firms. In fact, the survey of 1,200 registered voters shows that by a 2:1 margin, the public supports increased use of ethanol in our nation’s fuel supply. (To check out a Nebraska survey, click here.)

By a 71 to 17 percent margin, voters believe the rising cost of oil and gas is the primary reason food prices have been going up, rather than blaming the rising use of corn-based ethanol. There are some nice charts at the GoodFuels blog with more details.

The report also noted that:

Voters of all partisan and ideological stripes support increased use of this important, home-grown energy alternative and do not blame ethanol for the rising cost of food. The steadfast support of environmentalists is particularly telling, in that much of the campaign against ethanol has been waged in the environmental community.

You can download a .pdf of the report here.

The survey was conducted between June 23 and July 1 by the Democratic polling firm Greenberg Quinlan Rosner and the Republican polling firm Public Opinion Strategies, and was commissioned by the Renewable Fuels Association.

Podcast: Here's the Food Dude

As promised, we've been able to post three separate Food Dude "call-in" radio spots that aired in Nebraska. They've been well-received and bring home an important message for consumers. Similar spots have aired on a variety of radio stations across the country.

To listen, click the links below. Each is a minute long.

Spot 1, featuring Ian from Illinois, Tanya from Texas and Virginia from Virginia

Spot 2, featuring Winnie in Wisconsin, Norman from New York and Mark from Missouri

Spot 3, featuring Valerie from Vermont, Nick from Nevada and Georgia from (you guessed it), Georgia

Biodiesel Board: Don’t Buy What Grocers Trying to Feed You

In an article for the August edition of Biodiesel Magazine, the National Biodiesel Board's Joe Jobe said the recent attacks from the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) blaming biofuels for rising food costs are "deceptive and just plain wrong." He said GMA’s attacks are not based on sound science, sound economics or common sense.

"Rather, they are based on the GMA’s desire to find an easy target for which to defend its profits," Jobe said. You can find the article here.

Jobe said NBB is "committed to fighting the political and corporate interests that are more concerned with protecting their own profits over the health, security and pocketbooks of American families."

He concludes his commentary with this: In the end, we are confident that Americans won’t be buying what the GMA is selling for one simple reason: its wrong.

Pork exports set a record

The U.S. Meat Export Federation said pork export sales in May set another monthly record -- while beef exports reached their highest levels since December 2003.

“The shortage in the global meat supply, combined with record pork production in the United States and the continued weak dollar are putting U.S. beef and pork in a very advantageous position in many export markets,” said Erin Daley, manager of research and analysis for USMEF, in this news release.

The new monthly record for pork (including variety meat exports) was set at 196,118 metric tons or 432.4 million pounds (valued at nearly $452 million) in May. Export volume was up 95 percent compared to May 2007 and 12 percent more than the April 2008 record. This put January-May pork (including variety meat) exports at 825,800 metric tons (1.8 billion pounds) valued at $1.86 billion, up 60 percent and 51 percent respectively from the same period last year.

Beef exports (including variety meat) in May of 83,761 metric tons (184.6 million pounds) were the largest since December 2003, and reached 78 percent of the May 2003 export volume and 97 percent of its value at nearly $309 million. The January-May volume of 355,982 metric tons (784.8 million pounds) is 29 percent higher and the value ($1.25 billion) is 39 percent higher than the same period last year.

Podcast: Corn supplies are plentiful

In this Podcast, Sutton corn producer Jim Hultman provides an update on how many corn acres were planted and overall corn supplies.

OPEC president must be delusional

How else can anyone explain OPEC president Chakib Khelil's comment that "the intrusion of bioethanol on the market" is responsible for 40 percent of the increase in oil prices? Just check out the article on MarketWatch if you can't believe it, either.

Khelil said the weak dollar and geopolitical worries are responsible for the other 60% rise in crude oil prices. All of this came from an Algerian newspaper. Khelil is also the Algerian energy minister. And if the report is accurate, clearly he doesn't understand that ethanol replaces, as in reduces demand, for oil. Less demand = lower prices.

Of course, the oil cartel OPEC doesn't live in reality, or at least not the same reality as the rest of us. In fact, Khelil told the paper that oil supplies are sufficient, that supplies are balanced with demand and that the current rise in prices isn't good for anyone. Except, of course, for OPEC and Big Oil, who are enjoying record dollars coming their way. But they don't count in his altered state of reality where everything -- but biofuels, apparently -- is peaches and cream.

Article on "confidential" report off the mark

A "leaked" World Bank "confidential" report that later proved to be a bit off the mark is still making the rounds, including being referred to by the Grocery Gang and it's hip-pocket economists as believable. The real and more correct report the World Bank promised to hurry out the door late last week hasn't yet appeared.

The hubbub began with an article in the U.K. newspaper The Guardian, which claimed to have gotten a hold of a "confidential" report that said biofuels like ethanol are responsible for 75 percent of the global increase in food prices. And the reason the report was still secret was political and involved the Bush Administration. The article didn't mention high energy prices and claimed drought and increased demand played only a minor role.

It turns out the draft report was a "working document" and wasn't a secret at all. The Wall Street Journal, which hasn't exactly been friendly to biofuels, saw the working document and concluded that it is "clear that the headline figure for biofuel’s role in the food crisis was a little overstated in the original article." Other things it noted were at play: low grain stocks, large land use shifts, speculative activity and export bans.

So the original article in The Guardian was a hack job - and not that good of one. But it does provide fodder for the anti-ethanol folks. And that is too bad, because when the real report comes out, it won't have the same attention-getting headlines.

Podcast: Ethanol can help end oil's domination

In this Podcast, Fremont farmer Ron Schultz reminds us all of the real cost of oil and how ethanol from corn can help end oil's domination.

Corn cups for iced coffee

At a neighborhood coffee shop in Lincoln yesterday, I was surprised not by the iced coffee but what it was served in -- a corn-based plastic cup. According to the baristas, the straw was made of corn, too. They were very enthusiastic about the cups. The shop -- The Cup (25th and Randolph) is in an old Pepsi bottling building and has a good atmosphere if you happen to be in the neighborhood.

Plastic cups at The Cup are made from PLA -- which is made from corn at a plant in Blair, Nebraska. The Natureworks plant churns out tons of the little corn-plastic BBs every day and ships them all over the world. They're turned into cups, deli containers, gift cards, fiber for clothes and decorative items, plastic wrap and a lot more.

Another company making unique things from corn is DuPont, which now makes its Sorona polymer from corn instead of petroleum. Although DuPont's polymer can be used for plastics, a great deal of focus is on carpet and fabrics. There's also the ADM-Metabolix joint effort, which is building a plant in Iowa to convert corn to plastic resin known as Mirel.

All of these efforts -- and more -- allow every day plastic items and fabrics that were traditionally made from petroleum to instead be made from a renewable resource. In this case, America's top crop: corn.

Other items made that use corn? Crayons, toothpaste, paint, aspirin, batteries, adhesives, paper, lubricants and hundreds of other items. The Nebraska Corn Board produced a brochure a year ago that highlights all of these and the many other uses of corn. To have a look, click here to download the .pdf file.