The United States "can do it all" -- turn more corn into ethanol without running short of food, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said on Thursday, as oil prices soared and the government raised its forecast of food price increases this year.
"There is no reason for us to take the foot off the gas," said Vilsack, referring to biofuels at a two-day Agriculture Department conference on the outlook for this year's crops. "We can do it all."
A record 5 billion bushels of corn will be used to make ethanol in the marketing year opening on Sept 1, up slightly from this year, said USDA. It also forecast food prices will rise 3.5 percent this year -- double the U.S. inflation rate.
Former president Bill Clinton, who spoke shortly after Vilsack, said there were stark trade-offs in using crops to make fuel. They affect the food supply in other nations as well as decisions around the world on where to grow crops.
"I think the best thing to say is we have to become energy independent but we don't want to do it at the cost of food riots," said Clinton. "The more biofuels we grow here, the less crops we have to put on the international market."
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Showing posts with label Tom Vilsack. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tom Vilsack. Show all posts
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Friday, January 28, 2011
Monsanto (NYSE:MON) Gets Go Ahead for GMO Alfalfa
The USDA gave farmers the go ahead to plant GMO alfalfa developed by Monsanto (NYSE:MON).
Also included in the decision is the allowance to plant alfalfa with no restrictions; something opponents of GMO though would be included in the decision, if the planting was allowed to go forward.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said, "After conducting a thorough and transparent examination of alfalfa ... APHIS has determined that Roundup Ready alfalfa is as safe as traditionally bred alfalfa."
APHIS refers to Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, an arm of the USDA, and which made the decision.
While saying he understood the concerns of opponents, Vilsack added farmers in the U.S. need to be allowed to have a choice in whether or not they want to plant GMO alfalfa or other varieties.
Vilsack concluded, "I'm trying to bring people together. This set of actions, it seems to me, provides opportunities for preservation of choice in agriculture, creates a set of forms for building trusting relationships that could lead us to better policy in the future,"
Monsanto was trading at $72.36, falling $1.32, or 1.79 percent, as of 11:02 AM EST.
Also included in the decision is the allowance to plant alfalfa with no restrictions; something opponents of GMO though would be included in the decision, if the planting was allowed to go forward.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said, "After conducting a thorough and transparent examination of alfalfa ... APHIS has determined that Roundup Ready alfalfa is as safe as traditionally bred alfalfa."
APHIS refers to Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, an arm of the USDA, and which made the decision.
While saying he understood the concerns of opponents, Vilsack added farmers in the U.S. need to be allowed to have a choice in whether or not they want to plant GMO alfalfa or other varieties.
Vilsack concluded, "I'm trying to bring people together. This set of actions, it seems to me, provides opportunities for preservation of choice in agriculture, creates a set of forms for building trusting relationships that could lead us to better policy in the future,"
Monsanto was trading at $72.36, falling $1.32, or 1.79 percent, as of 11:02 AM EST.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Preview of the Disaster Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack Will Be
Wednesday Ag Secretary nominee Tom Vilsack appeared before the Senate Ag Committee for his confirmation hearing.
Unsurprisingly he reiterated his strong support for the renewable fuel industry and the farm bill.
Here's what he said:
“It is important to continue to maintain the infrastructure because, if you’re going to transition at some point in time to cellulosic ethanol, you have to have the capacity to produce it, and you don’t want that hundreds of millions of dollars, billions of dollars, that’s already been invested, not to be fully utilized.”
Think of it. He wants to maintain the failed experiment because it would be a waste of money if he was to get rid of it. It blows the mind. We need to keep wasting taxpayers money because of the faulty idea, and then continue to keep expanding it, while continuing to lose money.
Admitting the billions of dollars already spent are wasted, Vilsack's reasoning is to spend more so we didn't waste the already wasted money. This guys going to be fun to watch and comment on going forward.
Another ignorant senator from Indiana, Richard Lugar, pressured Vilsack to keep the "hope of biofuels alive." He also showed his lack of grasp of the issues surrounding ethanol by saying there's a need to bring it above the 10-percent mix, which is already breaking almost everything it's put in as far as small power equipment goes.
Keep the hope alive? That's about as dumb a statement that can be made. The best thing to do is immediately drop the disastrous and expensive program, and look for viable alternatives going forward.
What does Lugar think this is - a religion? Actually to many it is, as they blindly continue to drink the mixed ethanol koolaide, when money could be spent much better things.
Rather than being focused on bogus issues like disappearing polar bears and beluga whales, the government needs to push into existing, known reserves of the billions of barrels of oil on American soil and off its coastlines.
From there we can slow things down, take a deep breath, and find legitimate alternatives. We aren't in no hurry. There's plenty of oil out there for decades, only only idiotic, earth worshippers are keeping us from tapping into.
Sooner or later we'll have to, as the hype and false hope of a quick fix is teaching biofuels proponents that it'll take a lot more time than they thought to transition to alternative fuels. Oil is the current answer to the non-existent problem at this time.
Whether people like it or not, we'll have to drill and find ways to extract it during this period of time.
Vilsack will probably be confirmed on Tuesday as President-elect Obama is sworn in. Too bad!
Unsurprisingly he reiterated his strong support for the renewable fuel industry and the farm bill.
Here's what he said:
“It is important to continue to maintain the infrastructure because, if you’re going to transition at some point in time to cellulosic ethanol, you have to have the capacity to produce it, and you don’t want that hundreds of millions of dollars, billions of dollars, that’s already been invested, not to be fully utilized.”
Think of it. He wants to maintain the failed experiment because it would be a waste of money if he was to get rid of it. It blows the mind. We need to keep wasting taxpayers money because of the faulty idea, and then continue to keep expanding it, while continuing to lose money.
Admitting the billions of dollars already spent are wasted, Vilsack's reasoning is to spend more so we didn't waste the already wasted money. This guys going to be fun to watch and comment on going forward.
Another ignorant senator from Indiana, Richard Lugar, pressured Vilsack to keep the "hope of biofuels alive." He also showed his lack of grasp of the issues surrounding ethanol by saying there's a need to bring it above the 10-percent mix, which is already breaking almost everything it's put in as far as small power equipment goes.
Keep the hope alive? That's about as dumb a statement that can be made. The best thing to do is immediately drop the disastrous and expensive program, and look for viable alternatives going forward.
What does Lugar think this is - a religion? Actually to many it is, as they blindly continue to drink the mixed ethanol koolaide, when money could be spent much better things.
Rather than being focused on bogus issues like disappearing polar bears and beluga whales, the government needs to push into existing, known reserves of the billions of barrels of oil on American soil and off its coastlines.
From there we can slow things down, take a deep breath, and find legitimate alternatives. We aren't in no hurry. There's plenty of oil out there for decades, only only idiotic, earth worshippers are keeping us from tapping into.
Sooner or later we'll have to, as the hype and false hope of a quick fix is teaching biofuels proponents that it'll take a lot more time than they thought to transition to alternative fuels. Oil is the current answer to the non-existent problem at this time.
Whether people like it or not, we'll have to drill and find ways to extract it during this period of time.
Vilsack will probably be confirmed on Tuesday as President-elect Obama is sworn in. Too bad!
Monday, January 5, 2009
Obama's Pick of Tom Vilsack for Agriculture Secretary Grim News for Nation
Obama hasn't shown a lot of wisdom in his cabinet choices so far, and is evidenced in relationship to ethanol, as he picked ethanol subsidy proponent Tom Vilsack, former Iowa governor, to lead the Department of Agriculture.
The conflict of interest is too obvious to have to comment on, in that Iowa has been the largest recipient of taxpayer dollars, receiving the largest portion of the over $25 billion wasted on ethanol subsidies so far.
Not only that, but Vilsack is even more radical in pushing for larger subsidies for the failing biofuel strategy.
It's hard to understand how Obama on one side of his mouth asks for a cap on subsidies for wealthy farmers, citing the excessive power the special interest group wields, and then on the other side of his mouth places someone like Vilsack in charge of the Department of Agriculture. It's a grim, complete disaster.
"The president-elect’s own history is difficult to square with his recent farm-reform talk. Obama ardently backed ethanol subsidies while in the Senate — his home state of Illinois trails only Iowa in corn production — and one of his closest confidants, former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, is as responsible as any politician for the explosion in these subsidies."
Not only does corn-based ethanol require more inputs than other crops, but the usual unintended consequences have emerged, and as usual hurt the little people the most, as processed food prices soared in response to the artificial propping up of the prices of corn, driven only by Federal subsidies.
It looks like a lot more pain will have to be inflicted on people before politicians and environmentalist admit the failure of this venture, which was instigated by the unholy agreement between the two.
Now that the obvious results of the disaster are becoming known, green groups are trying to distance themselves from the debacle, as they're made to look like the fools they are.
All of us are still waiting to see where the reform promised by Obama is going to implemented. So far it's business as usual in Washington. And in the case of ethanol, it's an increasing disaster no one is willing to admit to and just drop off the subsidy list.
The conflict of interest is too obvious to have to comment on, in that Iowa has been the largest recipient of taxpayer dollars, receiving the largest portion of the over $25 billion wasted on ethanol subsidies so far.
Not only that, but Vilsack is even more radical in pushing for larger subsidies for the failing biofuel strategy.
It's hard to understand how Obama on one side of his mouth asks for a cap on subsidies for wealthy farmers, citing the excessive power the special interest group wields, and then on the other side of his mouth places someone like Vilsack in charge of the Department of Agriculture. It's a grim, complete disaster.
"The president-elect’s own history is difficult to square with his recent farm-reform talk. Obama ardently backed ethanol subsidies while in the Senate — his home state of Illinois trails only Iowa in corn production — and one of his closest confidants, former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, is as responsible as any politician for the explosion in these subsidies."
Not only does corn-based ethanol require more inputs than other crops, but the usual unintended consequences have emerged, and as usual hurt the little people the most, as processed food prices soared in response to the artificial propping up of the prices of corn, driven only by Federal subsidies.
It looks like a lot more pain will have to be inflicted on people before politicians and environmentalist admit the failure of this venture, which was instigated by the unholy agreement between the two.
Now that the obvious results of the disaster are becoming known, green groups are trying to distance themselves from the debacle, as they're made to look like the fools they are.
All of us are still waiting to see where the reform promised by Obama is going to implemented. So far it's business as usual in Washington. And in the case of ethanol, it's an increasing disaster no one is willing to admit to and just drop off the subsidy list.
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