GoodFuels

McCain campaign on AgriTalk

With only 3 weeks until the election, the presidential race is certainly heating up. Both campaigns have made energy policy a priority, and now we’ll have a chance to hear specifics straight from the horse’s (or elephant’s!) mouth.

In a two-part presidential forum series, the Renewable Fuels Association is partnering with the popular rural and agricultural radio program AgriTalk to get each campaign’s take on ethanol and its role in this nation’s energy future.

Today, October 16, beginning at 11:30 a.m Eastern/10:30 a.m. Central, Jim Moseley, former Deputy Secretary of Agriculture and member of the McCain-Palin Farm and Ranch Team,, will join AgriTalk host Mike Adams to discuss Senator McCain’s views on ethanol.

To find out where you can tune in to hear the interview or to listen in a live stream online, visit AgriTalk.

To hear part one of this series with Heather Zichal of Senator Barack Obama’s campaign, click here.

Be sure to tune in! This should be exciting to hear what the candidates think specifically about ethanol, particularly entering into the home-stretch of the campaigns.

Update: Listen to the program using the player below, or visit agritalk.com

Obama Talks to Farm Broadcaster

AgriTalk got Obama’s advisor on the air - AgriPulse got the man himself.

I’d call this a farm broadcast coup. Agri-Pulse Senior Editor Stewart Doan, who is a past National Association of Farm Broadcasting president and Farm Broadcaster of the Year, got an exclusive interview (by phone) with Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama for a discussion of agricultural issues that included renewable fuels. The interview marked the debut of Agri-Pulse’s new on-line audio interview program called “Open Mic.”

Regarding renewable fuels specifically and whether he supports the incentives in place for production, Sen. Obama told Stewart - “I’ve been a strong supporter of biofuels in the past and a Renewable Fuels Standard. What I do believe though is, given the pressure that we’re seeing on food crops and how that’s affecting feed prices, I do think that it is important for us to recognize that we need to move into things like switchgrass and cellulosic ethanol and we need to work with farmers to figure out how can we produce ethanol from non-food sources that would allow farmers to increase their incomes, would continue to improve rural economies, would help us with our dependence on foreign oil and would reduce climate change, but would not put so much pressure on feed prices. That is going to be part of a major energy initiative that I’m pushing for.”

Listen to Stewart’s interview with Obama here.

Abundant Harvest

The October corn production forecast from USDA’s National Ag Statistics Service got another boost, thanks to September rains that improved yield prospects in the central Corn Belt, central Great Plains, and upper Mississippi Valley.

The corn production estimate now stands at 12.2 billion bushels, up 1 percent from last month with yields expected to average 154.0 bushels per acre, up 1.7 bushels from September and 2.9 bushels above last year.

What that means is growers are pretty likely to harvest the second largest corn crop ever, with the second highest yield per bushel ever. Officials with the National Corn Growers Association are pretty happy about that. “We’ve been getting some good reports around the Corn Belt as our harvest has gotten under way,” said NCGA President Bob Dickey of Nebraska. “These estimates from the USDA help provide some broad background to our anecdotal field reports, and are terrific news for our growers in a year when the crop met several weather-related challenges.”

This says a great deal about the tremendous resilience and productivity of the American farmer, given record flooding and poor planting conditions in the spring. “Together, America’s farmers and ethanol producers are positively changing the role of American agriculture,” said Renewable Fuels Association President Bob Dinneen. “They are demonstrating that through the application of technology and ingenuity, this country can continue its role as the ‘breadbasket of the world’ while also making significant strides to securing our energy future.”

Meanwhile, the USDA Supply Demand report for October revised the corn usage for ethanol downward by 100,000 bushels, which RFA still says is too high but at least closer to reality. And the prices are coming down too - which is good news for livestock and ethanol producers. And that should mean we should all be seeing lower food prices in the grocery store now … right????