USDA 10-year agricultural projections concede major role to ethanol and biodiesel The US Department of Agriculture just released its long-term forecast for the farm sector. USDA Agricultural Projections for 2011-20 cover sector indicators, commodities, and trade. Key...
From the Dregs, Export Success
Biofuel byproduct goes to market as a livestock feed Blogging about the first the U.S. Agribusiness Trade and Investment Mission to Peru and Ecuador earlier this month, Michael Scuse of the U.S. Department of Agriculture tells of visiting a Peruvian feed mill and...
Type Casting?
Corn ethanol is cast as a culprit in rising food prices (again) A Financial Times report from the Commodity Markets Council annual meeting (this week in Palm Beach) notes that Dodd-Frank financial system reforms top the list of worries for the commodities futures...
Sizing up the Usual Suspects
Sorting out possible causes as yet another global food crisis looms The world’s poorest are at risk of being priced out of the market for food because … we’re burning corn and other staple crops for biofuel … the rising middle classes in the BRICs and beyond are...
A Cassava by Any Other Name
Yuca, manioc, tapioca … it’s still one versatile tuber Cassava (manihot esculenta) is getting a lot of attention as a pro-poor biofuel that could be a comer in the international ethanol market. But the tropical plant’s starchy root has myriad uses and figures...
Pro-Poor Biofuel
Side-stepping the food-or-fuel choice by cultivating cassava It seemed like a good idea at the time: Reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and start weaning the gasoline-dependent by phasing in (with a mix of subsidies and mandates) the use of ethanol as motor fuel. The...