Wednesday was a difficult day for The American Independent News Network, which is the larger entity that operates The Iowa Independent. Our chief executive and founder announced two of our sister sites would close and their content would be moved to The American Independent.
A recently introduced bill could have far-reaching impact on the U.S. sugar industry, including American Crystal Sugar, a farmer-owned cooperative that locked out 1,300 Midwest workers on Aug. 1.
The chairman for Herman Cain’s Iowa effort says the campaign “relied more on the word of farmers than Washington regulators” in deciding to run an ad containing claims the Environmental Protection Agency says are false.
The Iowa Senate will remain under the control of a slim 26-25 Democratic majority when it reconvenes in January 2012.
Jeff Storjohann, Carroll Daily Times Herald
Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey says cellulosic ethanol should complement, not cannibalize, existing corn-fed facilities and greatly contribute to an increasingly profitable crossroads of agriculture and energy.
Moreover, Northey said that cellulosic ethanol, which can use grasses, will put much more of the Iowa countryside into profitable play.
“It will continue to evolve,” Northey said in an interview. “The technology around the plants is getting better. We certainly hear folks are putting a lot of dollars into cellulose technology, looking at grasses or wood waste.”
Does that mean it’s the end of the corn-ethanol business?
“I don’t think it does,” Northey said.
He suspects the corn-fueled industry develops over the next decade and a half with growth switching to cellulose.
Georgia is developing a new wood-waste plant that can create 1 billion gallons of ethanol annually, he said.
That move will help spur more nationwide interest and support for ethanol, Northey added.
“One thing about the energy market is it’s huge,” Northey said. “We’ve seen its impact on corn. We’re not making a huge impact in the energy market and yet the energy market’s made a huge impact on corn. The same thing will happen around cellulose. You can’t take a hungry engine like energy grabbing cellulose, whether its corn stalks or whether its dedicated crops or even wood waste without having a huge impact on that as well.”
Northey met with about a dozen people and conducted an interview with Iowa Independent, the Carroll Daily Times Herald and Carroll Broadcasting at the Iowa State University Extension Center in Carroll this week.
His overall projection for agriculture is bullish.
“I think it’s a great time to be involved in agriculture in Iowa,” Northey said. “When there are profits we capitalize them back into the land values or cash rents. We’re willing to pay a little bit more because there’s profit on the farm. You see those prices going up.”
Ethanol plants will keep running and “crunching corn,” he said.
“We are creating some great long-term investments in agriculture,” he said. “I think in ag we’re always concerned that we’ve been through times, whether it was the ’70s or the mid-’90s when we thought we had a new era in agriculture, and we were disappointed so I think everybody’s always waiting to make sure that it’s really true, but this one surely looks like we’re in great times in agriculture.”
One positive with cellulosic ethanol developed from switchgrass is that the grass can be harvested after a last frost.
“It sounds like a great scenario,” Northey said.
Do you know where to vote on Election Day? Do you know what to bring with you? Get comprehensive voter information for your state here.
Sign up for our email newsletter