Iowa Farmer Today
10-31-07
Bioeconomy may transform Iowa’s future
By Gene Lucht, Iowa Farmer Today
Once upon a time, Iowa farmers started making and at least attempting to sell a
product they called gasohol.
Born in the late 1970s --- when oil prices were soaring and corn production was
climbing as well --- the idea was to develop a new product for Midwestern crops
and reduce the nation’s dependence on oil imports.
It really started with an earlier effort to coax high-fructose syrup out of corn,
according to Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey, a farmer and former
National Corn Growers Association president.
“That started us thinking more about the components of the crop,” Northey
explains. “And, one thing led to another.”
Today, gasohol has graduated to ethanol, as well as E-85, biodiesel, and various
lubricants and fabrics made from starch and other plant-based items.
Over the horizon are myriad opportunities for items, such as cellulosic ethanol,
as well as plant-based pharmaceuticals and other unexplored ideas.
Call it the biofuture.
“This is going to happen,” says Wendy Wintersteen, dean of the College of
Agriculture at Iowa State University.
The bigger question, Winstersteen says, is how this biofuture will unfold and
whether Iowa and other Midwestern states will make the most of what she views
as a unique opportunity to transform the culture, the economy and even the
landscape.
Northey agrees. The key is farmers and agribusiness are looking at various
components of crops and are trying to see how they can better use those
components, he adds.
“It really is kind of a sea change of attitude concerning the components of the
crop,” he says.
“I see a bioeconomy that is very broad in its application in Iowa,” says
Wintersteen. “We will move beyond the issue of fuels.”
Still, in the short term, fuels are fueling the change.
The change is happening rapidly, at a speed that has led to some backlash
against using food crops for fuel and at a speed that could lead to short-term
over-supply and cash-flow problems for a still-fledgling industry.
The debate over the future is beginning to rage, but Wintersteen has one very
heavy hitter in her philosophical corner.
Norman Borlaug, the 93-year-old former Nobel Peace Prize Laureate who
founded the World Food Prize, said it is not a matter of food vs. fuel, and it isn’t a
matter of whether or not to push new ag technology.
“As I look on these advancements I can’t be despondent,” Borlaug told
researchers and policy-makers gathered for the recent World Food Prize
Symposium. “I have to be optimistic.”
For farmers in Iowa, there are several important points, Wintersteen and Northey
say.
One is corn-based ethanol and soy-based biodiesel aren’t going away anytime
soon, although it is possible the fast-growing markets for those products could
experience growing pains as prices and supplies fluctuate.
A second point is we don’t know whether ethanol or corn will be the product or
crop of choice for fuel a generation from now.
Much of the talk now centers around ethanol made from cellulosic material, but
that could mean cornstalks, cobs, switchgrass, wood pulp or any of several
dozen other products. That could lead to more corn being grown in Iowa in the
short term, but eventually less corn being grown as other cellulosic crops take
hold.
Wintersteen says that could actually mean more livestock (as researchers learn
how to better use crop components or ethanol by-products for feed) and different
crops (such as switchgrass) being grown.
Those items could change the landscape.
“In the old days — two years ago — the only way to get conservation changes
was through government farm programs,” Wintersteen says. “Now, we’re looking
at the possibility of the market leading to more conservation.”
That leads to a third point.
Wintersteen and Northey agree policy-makers will be faced with numerous
decisions in the coming few years.
Money is needed for research.
Governments may need to foster new and fragile industries. The business
climate needs to encourage experimentation and growth. And, efforts may be
needed to encourage local ownership or investment.
Of course, the biofuture may look different in other parts of the country or the
world.
Speaking at the recent World Food Prize international symposium, Zhangliang
Chen, president of the China Agricultural University in Beijing, said in China
sweet sorghum could become the crop of choice for cellulosic fuels and products.
In Africa and India, it could be jatropha. In Brazil, it could continue to be sugar
cane. In Iowa, it could be switchgrass.
He added a limiting factor in many parts of the world will be water. Because of
that potentially limiting factor, it is likely many researchers will be looking at
developing plants that require less water or are more drought-resistant.