U.S. Locked Into Ethanol Growth

The U.S. government has few options to slow down the ethanol boom that has played a big role in drawing down corn supplies to their lowest level in 15 years, a top U.S. Agriculture Department official said Feb. 10. “The fact is the industry has pretty much been built,” USDA chief economist Joe Glauber told

U.S. Biodiesel On Life Support, But Smiling

Biodiesel, still a moneylosing proposition in the United States compared to oil-based diesel, is about to have its best year ever thanks to government tax credits and usage mandates. But it will take months for the biodiesel industry to bounce back after being stranded last year, when the government let its six-year subs idy expi


In Brief… – for Jan. 13, 2011

Dangerous beetle found in L.A.:U.S. customs officials last week said they had found a beetle considered one of the world’s most dangerous agricultural pests in a shipment of rice arriving at Los Angeles International Airport. Officials found an adult khapra beetle, eight larvae and a shed skin in a shipment of Indian rice from Saudi

Food Groups Sue U.S. For Ethanol Boost In Gasoline

Livestock producers and food industry groups filed a suit on Nov. 9 seeking to overturn a U.S. decision to allow higher levels of ethanol in gasoline, saying it could push up food prices. The Grocery Manufacturers Association, the National Meat Association and other groups sued the Environmental Protection Agency, saying regulators overstepped their authority when


Diesel Engine Prices Will Jump

As of January 2011, diesel engines over 175 horsepower installed in new farm equipment destined for the U. S. market must comply with the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Interim Tier 4 emissions standards, which is the next step in further reducing exhaust pollutants in off-road vehicles. Tractors arriving on dealers’ lots in Canada will be



Canola Oil Makes The Biodiesel Grade – for Aug. 5, 2010

Biodiesel made from canola oil would emit 50 per cent less greenhouse gas than petroleum diesel fuel, which would make it eligible for the U. S. mandate to increase renewable fuel production, according to the U. S. Envi ronmental Protect ion Agency (EPA). EPA data that compares greenhouse gas emissions between biodiesel and conventional diesel,

Oil Spill Helps Biofuel Image

Renewable fuels like corn-based ethanol will get a boost as the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico feeds worries by Americans about long-term dependence on oil, a top U. S. private agricultural economist said on June 8. “The spill has heightened the concern about our dependence on fossil fuels so that quite naturally


Early-Spring Delicacy Rich In Nutrition Too

“The fiddlehead’s total antioxidant activity is twice that of blueberries.” – DR. JOHN DELONG Fiddlehead greens, the young, tightly curled fronds of the indigenous wild ostrich fern (Matteucia struthiopteris), are a delectable spring vegetable and rite of the season. Fiddleheads as a food source have been well known to Canada’s First Nations for many years.

Nothing To Hide

Forty-five years may have dimmed a frame or two of memory, but I can still see my father emptying small bags of flour-like powder into a five-gallon bucket and then, slowing stirring in a trickle of water until the two ingredients combined to make a chalky, white cream. The bags contained the still-new, pre-emergent herbicide