10/16/07 Product of the Year Part 2

Product of the Year Part 2. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. Each year AgriMarketing magazine gives out an award for their Product of the Year and this year ethanol has been given the award. The Ethanol Promotion and Information Council was also given partial credit. Tom Slunecka is the executive director of the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council and says even though it's a relative newcomer to the fuel industry; ethanol has made its mark. But there does seem to be a direct correlation to higher food prices but not necessarily because of ethanol. SLUNECKA: Many studies will prove that the price of raw energy or oil has a far larger impact than even the doubling of the price of corn because of all of the fuel that it takes to plant, harvest, collect, process, ship to the stores every time that food moves someplace it's dependant on the price of oil. Of course right now corn is the primary component in making ethanol but non-food based alternatives are quickly coming to the forefront like switchgrass. SLUNECKA: That's one of the great silver bullets that we know is on the very near horizon is our ability to use biomass; everything from waste wood to municipal waste to actually crops that are grown on land that isn't suitable for food crops, the switchgrasses of the world or the fast growing poplar trees  that'll make a dramatic change but we can't just emerge tomorrow with a cellulose product and expect it to permeate throughout the system. Corn ethanol today is the ramrod if you will opening up our infrastructure and opening up our minds to the acceptability of renewable fuels. But at the moment corn is crucial to continuing the giant strides ethanol is making in the industry. In author Malcolm Gladwell's book, "The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference" he talks about the point where events tend to go in a new direction. So where is the tipping point for ethanol? SLUNECKA: I think a lot of the current legislation that's being worked on is a 30-billion gallon RFS and of course that includes both bio-diesel and ethanol and other sources of renewable fuel sources as well. I think we need to concentrate on one number; as long as we are moving forward we are doing the right thing but my concern is the amount of opposition that the oil industry is quietly mounting against renewable fuels. They're using very quiet tactics, very effective tactics to put doubt in the minds of consumers and investors. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.