Page 32—Corn Talk, Lancaster Farming, Saturday, October 14, 2000
Ethanol Supporters
Urge Passage Of
Reformulated Fuels Act
NCGA and the Renewable
Fuels Association recently
urged President Clinton and
his administration to support
passage of the Federal Refor
mulated Fuels Act (S. 2962)
before the conclusion of the
106th Congress.
The bill, which was ap
proved Sept. 7 by the Senate
Environment and Public
Works Committee, would
ban MTBE in four years and
create a national program re
quiring the use of renewable
fuels.
In a Sept. 19 letter to Clin
ton, NCGA President Lynn
Jensen and RFA President
Eric Vaughn wrote, “There
has never been a more press
ing need to promote the in
creased value-added
production of domestic, re
newable fuel ethanol.
They noted that the Clean
Alternative Fuels Program
proposed in S. 2962 would
generate jobs, increase farm
income, reduce farm pro
gram expenditures, and
reduce U.S. dependence on
imported oil.
It’s time to turn up the
heat and tell Congress to pass
renewable fuels legislation
this year. Visit NCGA’s
home page (www.ncga.com)
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Corn Checkoff
Dollars Launch
Fiber Research Project
The NCGA and Archer
Daniel Midland (ADM) on
Sept. IS announced the be
ginning of a new two-year re
search project partnership
that is expected to expand
corn markets.
The goal of the research is
to create a commercial manu
facturing process that con
verts corn fiber or bran into
higher valued products.
These would include chemi
cal feedstocks such as ethy
lene glycol and propylene
glycol for antifreeze, and
fuels such as ethanol.
Corn fiber or bran is an
abundant by-product of the
wet milling industry and is
used as low-priced feed. The
project won’t provide a
quick-fix to the current low
prices corn growers are
facing because of the nation’s
10 billion-bushel corn crop.
But it is another example of
how NCGA has been using
grower checkoff dollars to
fund research that creates
higher valued products from
corn.
Producing the higher
valued products will grind
more corn, and reducing the
supply of corn ultimately im-
proves prices. Growers will
benefit from the entire
project and leverage their in
vestment of checkoff dollars
10-to-l.
In the $2.5 million project,
NCGA, as the project mana
ger, will contribute $250,000
in staff management and
ADM will provide about
$600,000 in researcher time
and other resources. DOE
has awarded a $1.7 million
grant for the research. Bat
telle Pacific Northwest Na
tional Laboratory of
Richland, Wash., is a subcon
tractor for the project.
This is another milestone
on the road to biobased in
dustries and new markets for
renewable resources. DOE’s
Vision for the Agricultural
Industry of the Future pro
gram has a goal of having re
newable resources provide 10
percent of the consumer
chemical feedstock market
by 2020. The $1.7 million
DOE grant is part of DOE’s
Bioproducts and Bioenergy
Technology program, a new
effort that develops opportu
nities in bioproducts,
biopower and biofuels.
NCGA Welcomes EPA
Report Showing No Risk
To Butterflies From Bt Corn
The NCGA welcomed a
report recently by the U.S.
Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) that refutes
claims about biotech’s al
leged impact on Monarch
butterflies.
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In August, research by two
lowa State University ento
mologists suggested that Ba
cillus thuringiensis (Bt) corn
pollen might have an adverse
impact on Monarch butterfly
populations. However, the
EPA said that tests per
formed on Bt corn, cotton,
and potato crops confirm the
agency’s original findings
that there are “no unreason
able adverse effects from
these products.”
“Overall, the available in
formation indicated a very
low probability of risks to
Monarchs in areas beyond
the near-edge of cornfields,”
the EPA noted. The agency
concludes that the published
preliminary Monarch toxicity
information is not sufficient
to cause undue concern of
widespread risks to Monarch
butterflies.
‘Know Where to Go’
With Biotech Grain
Recently, Genetic ID an
nounced it had detected
Cry9C in Taco Bell taco
shells.
Cry9C, or Star Link, a
biotech protein developed by
Aventis Corp., has not re
ceived approval for food use
in the U.S. or abroad.
NCGA is skeptical about
the report for several reasons:
less than one-half of one per
cent of total 2000 U.S. corn
acreage is planted to biotech
corn containing Cry9C, and
NCGA questions the validity
of Genetic ID’s findings,
largely because of its own
skepticism of biotechnology,
the antibiotech stand of the
group that ordered the test
ing, and its past record of
drawing conclusions about
the presence of genetically
modified materials that were
later proven inaccurate.
Regardless of the alleged
findings, NCGA is stepping
up its “Know Where To Go”
campaign for harvested
biotech corn, reminding all
participants in the food pro
duction chain to take special
care in handling hybrids con
tain Star Link and any corn
grown within 660 feet of it.
According to the licensing
agreement, grain from Star-
Link hybrids is to be directed
into domestic feed and non
food industrial markets.
Likewise, this grain is not ap
proved for export sale, and
must be kept out of these
markets.