11/10/06 Farmer and frequent flyer miles

Duane Grant will rack up the frequent flyer miles next week.. In Germany next Friday Grant will talk with European farmers about Roundup Ready sugarbeets which he grew and harvested this year. There's opposition in countries like France to allowing genetically modified crops. GRANT "The farmers are saying 'hey we sell to the same market as the Americans do. They're producing higher yields at lower costs than we are and they're going to run us out of business if we don't get on board.'" Prior to Germany the Rupert area farmer will make a presentation next Tuesday in Washington on his USDA funded study of cellulose ethanol. GRANT "Number one we have the straw here in sufficient quantities to supply a plant, a 16 million gallon annual production plant. And then secondly that we can do it at a low enough cost and with enough predictability that the plant could be assured of operating successfully here." The barley and wheat straw harvested on his farm was ground into a powder at Caldwell and shipped to Ottawa, Canada where Iogen Corporation uses it for ethanol production, something they hint they may be willing to do someday with a new production plant near Idaho Falls. Voice of Idaho Agriculture Bill Scott