Ridge Administration Preserves Record 40 Farms
HARRISBURG (Dauphin
Co.) On behalf of Gov. Tom
Ridge, Agriculture Secretary Sam
Hayes announced the preserva
tion of 40 farms with 4,192 acres
in 21 counties.
This is the highest number of
farms preserved at one meeting
under the Ridge Administration,
furthering Pennsylvania’s role as
a leader in preservation. A record
number of easements were ap
proved with township funding,
and the first farm under the
AMS Selects Plant Variety Protection Office Commissioner
WASHINGTON, D.C. On
Monday, the USDA’s Agricultur
al Marketing Service announced
the selection of Paul Zankowski
as the new commissioner of the
Plant Variety Protection Office.
Zankowski comes to AMS
from a, position with the Harris
Moran Vegetable Seed Company
Technology May Turn Stover Into Ethanol Source
James Hettenhaus
Fermentation Expert
And Consultant
Department Of Energy
Renewable fuels are becoming
an essential part of our country’s
energy future. Ethanol from com
and diesel fuel from soybeans are
finally capturing the public’s at
tention as oil supplies dwindle
and gasoline prices rise.
Legislation has been intro
duced in the U.S. Senate that
would significantly increase the
use of biofuels. Today, U.S. etha
nol production is about 2 billion
gallons, or 1.5 percent of our na
tion’s fuel. Almost all of this is
made from corn, consuming over
tOO million bushels or 7 percent
of the corn crop.
If Congress passes the recently
introduced Renewable Fuels for
Energy Security Act, industry ca
pacity would jump to 9 billion
gallons by 2011 and 16 billion
gallons by 2016. That level of
production would displace oil im
ports by 300,000 barrels daily by
2011 and 610,000 barrels a day
five years later.
Which raises an obvious ques
tion: How are we going to pro
duce enough crops for all our
current food, feed and industrial
needs if we start using com and
soybeans to produce fuel?
There are two answers: One,
we will need to increase grain
yields, and two; we must find a
way to use excess stover (stalks,
leaves and cobs) for
fuel production. The
good news is that pro
gress is being made on
both fronts through re
search in biotechnolo
gy
Already biotechno
logy is helping to pro
tect yields from pests
and diseases. And ex
tensive research is
being conducted to
identify and utilize the
genes that will make
today’s high-yielding
hybrids produce even
more grain. There
have also been signifi
cant advances in bio
tech research to make
corn stover a usable
source for ethanol. The
Department of Energy
Office of Transporta
tion Technologies has
awarded a total of $3O
million to help fund
this effort by two lead-
Long-Term Installment Purchase
Program was approved.
“This unprecedented preserva
tion activity is made possible by
the continued support of Gov.
Ridge’s Growing Greener invest
ment. Through this investment
and the commitment of the state
lawmakers and county govern
ments, Pennsylvania has taken
the lead nationally in maintain
ing our agricultural heritage,”
said Hayes.
The secretary also noted that
in Modesto, Calif., where he held
the title of director of biotechno
logy. While with Harris Moran,
Zankowski developed commer
cial biotechnology products, ad
ministered the molecular biology
program, and conducted exten
sive plant breeding research.
As commissioner, Zankowski
ing enzyme companies, Genencor
and Novozyme. A third enzyme
company, logen, already has a
small plant that processes 40 tons
per day of stover to help finalize
the design for one 50 times
larger. It will use 2,000 tons of
stover per day, and produce 60
million gallons per year of etha
nol.
Ethanol is produced when sug
ars in com are put through a fer
mentation process. Com stover
can produce as much sugar as
com grain, but stover is not read
ily broken down into sugars that
can be converted into ethanol.
Much of the stover (38 percent) is
cellulose, a tough substance that
does not easily break down.
Wood for example contains cellu
lose. Enzymes produced by fungi
or bacteria can break down the
com cellulose into the sugar glu
cose, but the process is very time
consuming and therefore expen
sive. Genencor and Novozyme
are using biotechnology to modi
fy the fungi and bacteria so they
produce an enzyme with im
proved activity on cellulose so it
more readily yields glucose. An
other component of stover (32
percent) is hemicellulose, which
readily produces four different
sugars. Unfortunately, microbes
cannot digest those sugars; thus
they cannot be converted into
fuel alcohol. Breakthroughs in
biotechnology, however, can pro
duce genetically enhanced mi
Pennsylvania is providing two
new options to farm owners to
preserve their farmland: the
Long-Term Installment Program
and Land Trust Reimbursement
Program.
The Long-Term Installment
Program provides tax relief to
farms entering into the farmland
preservation program with an ex
tension of payments over several
years rather than one lump sum.
While the farm is under the Long
Term Payment plan, they can
will head the USDA staff that
administers the provisions of the
Plant Variety Protection Act.
The act extends intellectual
property right protection to de
velopers of new varieties of seed
reproduced and tuber-propa
gated plants. This protection en
courages development of new va-
crobes capable of digesting the
sugars.
All this work to cost-effectively
produce sugars from stover could
mean a really sweet deal for com
producers, because their fields
currently produce as much stover
as they do com. With the help of
genetically improved enzymes
and microbes, it should be possi
ble to get as much sugar from a
pound of stover as from a
pound of com grain. It has
been estimated that growers
can realize an additional"
$2O net per acre by selling
stover to ethanol producers,
depending on how much is
harvested from the field and
other factors, such as trans
portation distance. Many
industry leaders expect that
SO to 100 biorefineries may
be in operation by 2010.
Not all of the stover in a
field should be converted to
ethanol production. Univer
sities and agriculture have
been working together over
the past few years to define
the amount of stover that
should be left so as not to
have a negative impact on
soil organic material and
erosion. Even if only half of
it is harvested and con
verted to ethanol produc
tion, there would be a
meaningful contribution to
defer capital gains taxes for the
term of the plan. The benefit of
this program is that it helps the
county farmland preservation
board purchase more farmland
easements in one year.
In addition, the Land Trust
Reimbursement Grant Program
assists private land trusts with
land preservation by providing
grants to help defray the costs of
acquiring agricultural conserva
tion easements. Ten land trusts
across Pennsylvania participate
rieties of plants, benefitting
agriculture, home gardeners, and
consumers.
Zankowski received his mas
ter’s and doctorate degrees in
plant physiology from the Uni
versity of California and a bache
lor’s degree in biology from Penn
State.
energy security, rural economy
and the grower’s bottom line. At
the expected delivery price of $35
per dry ton of stover delivered, a
refinery would purchase more
than $24 million of stover annu
ally.
Stover is a term that may be
unfamiliar to some folks. Some
call it stubble. Others call it crop
residue. Some refer to it by the
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in this valuable program. Under
this program, 855 acres of farm
land have been preserved.
“Gov. Ridge has supported
farmland preservation and has
been an advocate for the preser
vation of open space. Through
support of the Governor and resi
dents of the commonwealth, we
continue to preserve farmland in
a record-setting pace,” Hayes
said.
During the June meeting,
Hayes noted that through the
hand work of county farmland
preservation boards a record 313
farms have been preserved since
July, 2000. To date 1,640 farms
and 198,811 acres have been pre
served. This process was com
pleted through purchase of devel
opment rights or easements.
For more information on the
Farmland Preservation Program,
contact the Bureau of Farmland
Preservation at (717) 783-3167,
or access the Department *of Ag
riculture’s homepage through the
PA Power Port at www.sta
te.pa.us or directly at www.pda.s
tate.pa.us.
unflattering term of trash. We
can expect that term to go out of
popular use when the “trash”
starts producing cash.
Editor’s Note: The author is a
consultant, who works with the
U.S. Department of Energy and
private companies to commercia
lize the technology.