GRAND VISION IN THE HEARTLANDS

Renewable energy doubters lack vision
Keith Dittrich, chairman, American Corn Growers Association, December 12, 2006 (AG Weekly)

- I am compelled to write in response to a recent Omaha World Herald report regarding the future of ethanol and renewable energy potential in the state. The report cited possible actions by the Nebraska Cattlemen’s Association to eliminate the Renewable Fuels Standard, the ethanol tax incentive and the import duties on non-American ethanol. I strongly feel that the group’s actions reveal a lack of any vision…
- There are many of us that can see…an unprecedented economic and societal potential for all of agriculture as we enter one of the most significant revolutions in our 220-year history as a nation…
- If there were truly a free market, without any governmental involvement in energy production, we might be faced with $200 to $300 per barrel oil today! …The Nebraska Cattlemen shouldn’t think for a moment that the fuel they put in their trucks isn’t subsidized. In fact, it is probably the most subsidized commodity on the face of the earth…

- For many years, they have been buying their feed stuffs at heavily subsidized levels, given the system of farm programs in place that encourages high volumes of cheap commodities…
- Cattlemen need not fear for their businesses because of renewable energy. They will have access to huge amounts of distiller grains…They will have lower energy costs and will benefit from the fact that grassland will be worth more as all biomass becomes more valuable…In the end, anything produced on the farm or ranch will be worth more as the demand for our production increases…
- What we all must embrace is an imagination to see what is possible, and to reach out for it…And possibly because of the vision of some organizations, we may end up having more of our rural sons and daughters serving our nation by producing food and fiber in the Midwest instead of serving up bullets in the Middle East.