Energy efficiency improvements in the past four years make corn ethanol a far more earth-friendly choice than gasoline, according to the findings of a study conducted by faculty at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

A study published in Journal of Industrial Ecology shows that ethanol, beginning with the cultivation of the seed, all the way through to the delivery to the fueling station and the use of ethanol in a vehicle, emits an average of 51 percent less greenhouse gas than gasoline. Greenhouse gases such as carbon and methane are suspected of creating conditions leading to vast climate change, a growing number of scientists believe.

“We will be advocating for agriculture,” Rep. Al Juhnke straightforwardly states. Juhnke, the state legislator from Willmar, serves as chairman of the Minnesota House Committee for Agriculture, Rural Economies and Veterans Affairs.

Speaking before several hundred representatives of farming, agribusiness and food industries in Minnesota on Thursday, Congressman Collin Peterson, the chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, told the nations food processing companies and grocery companies that they had "ginned up" a smear campaign against grain farmers and ethanol companies, trying to hang all the blame for increased retail food prices on the increased prices for corn, which they in turn blamed on ethanol production.

Wednesday, October 15 will be the first of three dates to go and see demonstrations of harvest machinery that simultaneously collect both grain and corn cobs, separating them and depositing each in separate bins as the combine and grain cart move through the corn field.

(Posted march 4, 2008) According to data just released by the USDA, Minnesota’s corn crop in 2007 is worth $4.38 billion dollars, an increase of 38 percent over the year before—also a record. The crop saw a 96 cent per bushel increase in the Marketing Year Average price, to $3.85. The previous record, according to USDA-NASS, was $3.14 in 1995.

(Posted March 26, 2008) Minnesota now has approximately 175,000 Flexible Fuel Vehicles, according to the latest estimate by American Lung Association of the Upper Midwest. Flexible fuel vehicles can use any combination of ethanol and gasoline, up to 85 percent ethanol—a formulation called E85. 

(Posted March 27, 2008) In the past 800 years, the longest time between major droughts in the Midwest has been 23 years. We are now in the 20th year since the last major drought.