by Barry Amundson (Grand Forks Herald)  U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D, is concerned about two major issues that can affect farmers and ranchers this year.
One is the farm bill that faces an uncertain future as it’s set …

by Julie Harker (Brownfield Ag News)  Mixed prairie grasses that are used in Conservation Reserve Program lands did not live up to their potential as biomass crops for cellulosic biofuel production, in an eight-year study. D.K. Lee, …

(South Dakota State University/Biomass Magazine)  Can farmers produce at least 1 billion tons of biomass per year that can be used as biofuels feedstock? That’s the question that researchers are trying to answer, according to North Central …

(University of Illinois College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences/Science Daily)  A new report provides practical agronomic data for five cellulosic feedstocks, which could improve adoption and increase production across the country.  —  … “Early yield estimates …

by Dave Orrick (Twin Cities Pioneer Press)  Female pheasants have surprised researchers by running into corn and soybean fields — but not just for the crops.
Female pheasants, Minnesota researchers have found, often abandon natural grasslands …

(Environmental and Energy Study Institute)  … With a potential omnibus spending package on the table this fall, the oil industry and some environmental groups have raised again the proposition of RFS reform.  Two major claims made …

by Jessie Stolark (The Hill/Environmental and Energy Study Institute)  … The total amount of U.S. land under production by American farmers is down– not just over the last 50 or 100 years, but also over the last decade according …

by Geoff Cooper (Renewable Fuels Association)  Here we go again. We didn’t think it could get much worse than the Associated Press hit piece on ethanol in late 2013. But an ethanol hatchet job by …

by Kim Larson (Grand Forks Herald)  … Let us all be reminded, that CRP was never meant to remain as a stationary acreage program. It was expected to perform just as it has, rise and fall …

by Tom Dennis (Grand Forks Herald)  …  What happened is that crude oil production soared in North Dakota and elsewhere around the United States. More domestic oil production means less need to import foreign oil—and …

(AZO CleanTech)  Using switchgrass to produce biofuel is one way to decrease the United States’ dependence on oil, but growing it and making it profitable can be complicated.
Switchgrass is an excellent candidate for biofuel production. …

by Anna Simet (Biomass Magazine)  The USDA has released the final rule for the Biomass Crop Assistance Program, and though the general scope of BCAP is not changing with the recently published rule, there are …

(US Department of Agriculture)  Farm Bill program will benefit wildlife and outdoor recreation activity in California Bay Delta Region, Mississippi, Red River Basins and others
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced today that $328 million in conservation …

by Ken Anderson  (Brownfield Ag News)  There’s been considerable debate as to whether farming conservation practices should remain voluntary or be made mandatory.  But Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack believes voluntary programs are working and that …

by Kevin Jeffries (25 x ’25)  …  Lower demand for renewable fuels means lower prices for corn, soybeans and other crops. Generally, producers account for lower prices by shifting to more profitable crops and by cutting …

by Ashwin Raman (Duluth News Tribune)  I disagreed with the Feb. 18 commentary, “Ethanol mandate hurts environment,” by Annette Meeks of the Freedom Foundation of Minnesota.
How Meeks came to the conclusion that, “Since its inception, the …

(E! Science News/Earth & Climate)  The first long-term U.S. field trials of Miscanthus x giganteus, a towering perennial grass used in bioenergy production, reveal that its exceptional yields, though reduced somewhat after five years of growth, …

By Dina Cappiello (Associated Press/StarTribune)  The hills of southern Iowa bear the scars of America’s push for green energy: The brown gashes where rain has washed away the soil. The polluted streams that dump fertilizer …

by Chris Hanson (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  … Similar to the 1970s period of prosperity, Zulauf (Carl Zulauf, economics professor at Ohio State University) says that in 2012 crop prices increased by roughly 200 percent, which he attributes …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Is there bio-based relief for the harried taxpayer in sight?   Could conservationists, growers and biofuels producers find common ground in adapting the Conservation Reserve Program for bioenergy?   Could the US …

(US Senate Finance Committee)  This document is the fourth in a series of papers compiling tax reform options that Finance Committee members may wish to consider as they work towards reforming our nation’s tax system.  This …

by Ned Stowe (Environmental and Energy Study Institute)  The USDA estimates that farmers in the U.S. will plant nine million more acres in corn in 2013 than they did in 2011, an increase of almost 10 …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …In Maryland, The Wildlife Society released a Technical Review, “Effects of Bioenergy Production on Wildlife and Wildlife Habitat,” to provide answers to questions on bioenergy development and wildlife so that …

(Yahoo! News)  Applied Ecological Services, The Earth Partners, LP, and POET team up to apply science to industry: Cross-sector demonstration showcases the potential of conservation biomass as an alternative energy source.
It’s a very good week for the United States alternative energy …

by Margaret Broeren  (Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center)  …Much more than a buzzword, “sustainable” means that trade-offs—social, environmental and economic factors—have been measured, modeled and validated against actual “boots on the ground data” measured at agricultural …

by Tom Polansek (Reuters)  U.S. officials said on Friday they would offer higher payments to certain owners of environmentally sensitive farm land if they idle it in a conservation program instead of using it to …

by Jeff Wilson and Whitney McFerron (The Washington Post)  …Global food costs are down 11 percent from a peak a year ago as grain output rises from China to Canada, U.N. data show.
…The Agriculture Department affirmed its forecast for …

by Robert E. Kozak (Advanced Biofuels USA)  Retain Agricultural Land: Agricultural and forest lands are vulnerable to loss due to reduction of the dairy and pulp/paper industries and conversion to residential or commercial development.  They …

by Philip Brasher (Des Moines Register)  Programs the Obama administration has been pushing to promote next-generation biofuels are likely to have little funding in the next farm bill, according to the top Democrat on the …

by Tiffany Stecker (ClimateWire/Scientific American)  A study looks into giving farmers permission to harvest cellulosic feedstocks on land set aside for wetlands and wildlife conservation
Growing cellulosic feedstocks on federally subsidized conservation land could balance the biofuels emissions …

by Phil Ciciora (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)  A team of researchers led by Madhu Khanna, a professor of agricultural and consumer economics at Illinois, shows that very high biomass prices would be needed in …

by B. C. Venuto and J. A. Daniel (Crop Science)  Development of a biofuel industry based on biomass will require large quantities of cellulosic feedstock. Among the proposals for acquiring this feedstock, without impacting other …

by Robert E. Kozak  (Advanced Biofuels USA)  Looking at some real-world numbers, it becomes clear that the fear raised in Fixing a Critical Climate Accounting Error, Science, October 23, 2009, misses the point. Growing energy …