Biofuel Industry Development Initiative signed into law in Louisiana

Yesterday, Governor Bobby Jindal signed into law the Advanced Biofuel Industry Development Initiative, the most comprehensive and far-reaching state legislation in the nation enacted to develop a statewide advanced biofuel industry. Louisiana is the first state to enact alternative transportation fuel legislation that includes a variable blending pump pilot program and a hydrous ethanol pilot program.

The legislature found that the proper development of an advanced biofuel industry in Louisiana requires implementation of the following comprehensive “field-to-pump” strategy developed by Renergie, Inc.:

(1) Feedstock Other Than Corn
(a) derived solely from Louisiana harvested crops;
(b) capable of an annual yield of at least 600 gallons of ethanol per acre;
(c) requiring no more than one-half of the water required to grow corn;
(d) tolerant to high temperature and waterlogging;
(e) resistant to drought and saline-alkaline soils;
(f) capable of being grown in marginal soils, ranging from heavy clay to light sand;
(g) requiring no more than one-third of the nitrogen required to grow corn, thereby reducing the risk of
contamination of the waters of the state; and
(h) requiring no more than one-half of the energy necessary to convert corn into ethanol.

The legislature calls for a decentralized network of small biofuel manufacturing facilities each capable of producing 5 - 15 million gallons of biofuel per year. Variable blending pumps, directly installed and operated at local gas stations must offer the consumer a less expensive substitute for unleaded gasoline in the form of E10, E20, E30 and E85.

It is not entirely clear what crop this legislature was tailored for. Some believe it was tailored for sweet sorghum, considering that Renergie, Inc. was involved in developing the language. Sugarcane certainly should meet most if not all of the criteria listed above. Both are more energy efficient than corn, and neither has the same food-vs-fuel stigma that corn has.

U. S. Sugar Corp going out of business

Shocking news, U.S. Sugar Corp, the nation's largest producer of cane sugar, will go out of business in a $1.75 billion deal to sell its nearly 300 square miles of land to Florida for Everglades restoration. Once the deal is in place, U.S. Sugar would be allowed to farm the 187,000 acres of land for six more years before closing its doors. This area represents nearly half of the 400,000+ acres that sugarcane is grown on in Florida, the state that produces the largest amount of sugar from sugarcane. U.S. Sugar Corp employs about 1,700 people. Florida's Governor, Charlie Crist, said the deal is “as monumental as the creation of our nation's first national park, Yellowstone.” Perhaps that's a stretch, but those who have been fighting against sugar interests in an effort to protect the Everglades are surely celebrating this announcement, as part of the deal is to return the land as closely as possible to its pre-agricultural condition. Unless there are plans to grow sugarcane elsewhere in Florida, which I very much doubt, Louisiana will likely surpass Florida as the leading sugar producing state (from sugarcane) in the USA, that is, unless Louisana farmers start phasing out of sugar as well. Other crops that may not grow as well as sugarcane in Louisiana’s cane belt are starting to look increasingly lucrative at this juncture, so anything could happen between now and six years from now.

Clewiston, Florida (where U.S. Sugar Corp is headquartered) may have to re-think its title, “America's Sweetest Town."

Tribute to my brother, Burton Tew Jr.

I just got back from a four-day business trip to Orlando, Florida, and not more than an hour or so after returning, my brother, Burton called from his home in West Valley City, Utah, to relate to me that he had passed an important milestone. He reached his 80th birthday on June 5. It seems rather strange to think that I have a brother who is 80 years old. At any rate, there was a nice get together to recognize his achievement at which around 160 people showed up. Several others sent e-mails, congratulating him. I suppose his call to me was a gentle reminder that I overlooked the event. Honestly, I really should have e-mailed him when he passed the mark, and feel badly that I didn't. In picture: Burton (left), Louise (center).

Burton has lived a most fascinating life, and is widely respected for his breadth of knowledge. He has been invited to speak at an array of forums on an incredibly wide range of topics. By training, he is a chemical engineer, but he can hold his own on topics that reach far beyond the realm of his formal training. It helps that he was born with a photographic memory. Burton has a great sense of humor, and the jokes in his memory bank that he can draw on is truly amazing. My personal favorite, is Rindercella, which he can still do on call, and every bit as funny as Archie Campbell's version. He and his sweetheart, Louise, raised six children, Leah, Patricia, Cindy, Bart (deceased), David, and Ronald. They presently have a pretty sizeable group of grandchildren, and are now at the age where great-grandchildren are part of their lives. Burton served on a mission in England (1948-50) and later with Louise as a missionary couple in San Diego (1992-93). Dad lived to age 78, so Burton has now surpassed him. God willing, he will have a few more birthdays yet to come.

Tew Family Crest

Okay, I've given up on the idea of restricting my posts according to what day of the week it is. Bad idea. After all, this is just a blog, i.e., whatever is on my mind. Let's just say that on the whole, since I work from Monday through Friday, it's just more likely that I will be posting something work related. On Fridays and Saturdays, I have a greater interest in the culture around me. And on Sundays in particular, the focus will be more family/church oriented. Let's just leave it at that.

A long time ago, back when I was in college, I got the genealogy bug for a while. One of the projects I tackled was to create a Tew family crest based on a written description in a book about family crests, not based on any picture, per se. I thought I had long since lost the picture I had created, but it resurfaced the other day, so I scanned it.

Speaking of family names, I found a website that actually shows where each surname is most concentrated within in the United States. In the case of the name, Tew, the intermountain west and the southeast are where it is most concentrated. The states that light up the most are Utah, Alabama, and North Carolina.

Flex-fuel vehicles...what say you?

As a matter of course, at 7:00 pm, I find myself switching between O'Reilly's Factor (Fox News) and Olbermann's Countdown (MSNBC). While I'm not in full agreement with the positions of either of these polar opposites, occasionally I get sucked in to issues I have some passion for. Such has been the case with Bill O'Reilly over the past four days, with his Talking Points focusing on our need to reduce our dependence on OPEC Oil, controlled by Mideastern Oil Barons. I agree with him that these people who really don't like us very much, yet they are benefiting enormously from our consumption of their oil at current oil prices. Bill's answer in part is to mandate flex-fuel vehicles, and follow the lead of Brazil in becoming more oil independent through greater usage of home grown ethanol. Bill has been to Brazil several times and I am very happy that he aggressively challenges those who have jumped on the latest bandwagon to pooh pooh ethanol for various reasons.

From my perspective, ethanol has gotten a bad rap, because our ethanol is derived from corn, which is a lot harder to justify socially and energetically than ethanol from crops like sugarcane that have a much better energy balance, and less impact on world food supply.

Could we produce ethanol profitably from sugarcane in the U.S. at present oil prices? Right now, the sugarcane farmer is barely breaking even at the 20 cents a pound he is getting for the sugar he is producing. So, the simple answer would seem to be that if the farmer were getting more than 20 cents a pound for sugar converted to ethanol, and if the infrastructure were already in place, he would be better off producing ethanol. It takes roughly 12 lbs of sugar to produce one gallon of ethanol, and on an equivalent volume basis, ethanol will only take you about 70% as far down the road as gasoline. Therefore 12 lbs sugar x 20 cents/lb = $2.40/gallon or $3.40/gas-equivalent gallon. How much cheaper it would be to produce ethanol directly from sugarcane juice than from fully processed raw sugar? The Brazilians should be able to answer this question. Apparently, they can produce ethanol at around 85 cents/gallon and I believe that they sell sugar at the world market price which is currently around 10 cents/lb. Could molasses and lower strikes of sugar be routed toward ethanol production, while only the highest strike of sugar (A-strike) be used toward the production of traditional sugar products? Is Brazil's claimed 8:1 energy output:input ratio valid? How much different is our ratio?

Burton Edwin Tew: 1900 - 1978

I have a few pictures of my father, Burton Edwin Tew. There may be some relatives out there who do not have access to these pictures. There may be some who have pictures I have never seen. The first is of my father as a small child, dutifully feeding piglets on the family farm in Mapleton, Utah. Take note of his attire...entirely appropriate in the early 1900's. The second is of my father as a youth. The third is a picture of my grandfather William Thomas Tew with his five sons, Bryan, Warren, Will, Bird, and Burton from left to right. If I have made any errors, please bring these to my attention.

Preserving Crop Diversity

I just returned from my trip to Colorado. The meeting I attended with the other Crop Germplasm Committee Chairs was quite enlightening...much more so than the previous one I attended two years ago. Considerable emphasis was placed on maintaining crop germplasm in collections around the country, and making the Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN) system that describes all of this germplasm more user friendly to those who have a vested interest in it. The GRIN system will be completely overhauled over the next few years, and will become the gold standard for describing germplasm in collections throughout the world. When the overhaul is completed, GRIN will become "GRIN Global." In the USA, within the National Plant Germplasm System, there are several locations where the USDA-ARS maintains collections, each location emphasizing those crop species that make the most sense for that particular location. The National Seed Storage Laboratory that we had the opportunity to take a tour of, which is located on the CSU Campus in Ft. Collins, is all about long-term storage at very cold temperatures. You may be aware of an ambitious effort to preserve germplasm in the event of a doomsday scenerio in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault located in a remote part of Norway above the Artic Circle. This project, which is under the auspices of the Global Crop Diversity Fund, was recently reported on by CBS (60 Minutes, see expandable 12-minute video which the Global Crop Diversity Fund website links to). The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation contributed to this project in a substantial way, as did some other organizations. As a side note, it is actually rather startling how much money this Foundation has contributed toward agricultural research, such as the $26.8 million it is giving Cornell University to find resistance to a very threatening wheat rust disease that has potentially devastating consequences on the world food supply, considering wheat's amazingly large role toward feeding mankind. It was pointed out at the meeting that the USDA-ARS often does not get the recognition it deserves in preserving the wide diversity of seed that it has historically preserved. We probably need to make ourselves more visible. If we feel we are underfunded, we have a responsibility to make the public more aware of what we have accomplished in the way of preserving germplasm, and communicating our needs to those who can make a difference.