03/20/07 Co-ops and biopower

The Northwest Cooperative Development Center is looking for farmers, consumers and businesses who've sought to create a biofuel or biopower cooperative business in Idaho or the Pacific Northwest. The center is asking those folks to take part in an online survey. BOWMAN - "We're trying to maintain and preserve a role for cooperatives in the emerging biofuels industry. We are looking at who is doing what currently all the way from consumer groups such as Go Biodiesel in Portland to grain grower cooperatives and sort of the distribution and processing in between." Eric Bowman says their survey results will be published later this summer and will show what the emerging co-op ventures look like and potential problems that could be ahead. There's no doubt about the interest in biofuels versus continued use of fossil fuels. BOWMAN "People on the left view them as we might run out, we're hurting the environment and people on the right view them as we're funding parts of the world that don't like us and there's a national security aspect. Typically groups who have been opposed are finding a lot of common ground in this issue." If you want to get in on the survey we've provided a link for you by going to our website, www.aginfo.net and look for this story www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=970273281869. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott