By: Cole Gustafson September 28 2009: Inforum FARGO – As mentioned in previous columns, public debate concerning biofuels now centers on global warming and indirect land use changes (LUC). Originally, the biofuel industry expanded based on additional farm income or rural economic development that potentially could be generated. Through time, the potential for renewable biofuels to provide [...] [...more]

By Don Comis How much corn crop residue, or stover, can be removed for biofuels without harming soil? An Agricultural Research Service (ARS) study of a 10-mile circle around the University of Minnesota’s Morris campus offers some clues. Dave Archer, an agricultural scientist at the ARS Northern Great Plains Research Laboratory in Mandan, N.D., chose that circle [...] [...more]

by Cindy Zimmerman The lowly alfalfa crop could play a role in the future of cellulosic ethanol. Alfalfa is the nation’s most popular legume and actually our third most valuable crop, but it is often taken for granted and somewhat under valued. However, the many benefits of the crop could make it a potential frontrunner in the [...] [...more]

BY COLLEEN KOTTKE • Gannett Wisconsin Media MARYTOWN — As the large John Deere combine lumbered through the field, harvesting camelina plants bearing faint pink seed pods, George Ecker held his breath. For months, the Stockbridge man had been researching the tiny, oil-laden seed that has the possibility of becoming a key player in the biofuel industry. As [...] [...more]

09/11/2009 Posted at 08:21:10 AM Despite weather-related delays in spring planting, U.S. corn farmers are on track for a massive 12.954 billion bushel harvest, better than analysts expected, with average yields at 161.9 bushels per acre, according to Friday morning’s crop report. A bumper crop safely in the bin will help blunt criticism from those who believe food should be eaten, [...] [...more]

By Jim Massey Editor PLATTEVILLE – The jury is still out on whether Wisconsin farmers can economically grow switchgrass, but researchers say they’re coming closer to making that determination. Some questions about growing switchgrass were answered during a Sept. 3 field day at Jim and Terry Schaefer’s farm north of Platteville. The Schaefers operate one of six farms [...] [...more]

A group that touts its efforts to promote “the sustainable production and equitable distribution of energy and food in communities across Minnesota” has issued a report on the renewable fuels used for transportation in this country. The Minnesota Project’s Transportation Biofuels in the United States: An Update, looks at many of the issues regarding biofuels in [...] [...more]

08.27.2009 1:26 pm By Bill Lambrecht Post-Dispatch Washington Bureau WASHINGTON — Midwest farmers argue that the Environmental Protection Agency doesn’t know beans about farming.That’s essentially what the St. Louis-based American Soybean Association contends in an offensive opened this week aimed at persuading the EPA to back off proposed new rules that could hamstring production of soy-made biodiesel as [...] [...more]

ScienceDaily July 22, 2009 Biofuels can be produced in large quantities and have multiple benefits, but only if they come from feedstocks produced with low life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions, as well as minimal competition with food production. This consensus emerges in a new journal article by researchers from the University of Minnesota, Princeton, MIT and the University [...] [...more]

Jon Birger, senior writer Last Updated: July 2, 2009: 5:25 PM ET (Fortune Magazine) — If ever there were an industry in need of a general, it’s the ethanol industry. Already under siege from food companies blaming biofuels for rising grocery prices, ethanol companies are now seeing their profit margins crushed by falling prices for their product. [...] [...more]