Archer-Daniels Midland’s stock soars on ethanol, biodiesel hype. 4

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1. 

   Biodiversivist Posted 10:11 am
   09 May 2006

   Excellent articleI have learned a great deal about the food industry from your posts. This post also bolsters my suspicion that the biofuels industry may be soon be indistinguishable from the oil industry, with an ecological impact just as bad, as hard to imagine as that might be.
   
   In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Help acquire and protect ecological hotspots, give to a conservation organization: http://www.saveourbiodiversity.com

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2. 

   Tom Philpott Posted 1:31 am
   10 May 2006

   Thanks, BioDI've learned lots from your posts on biofuels as well. I see us as a kind of biofuel-debunking tag team--me taking on the ag political economy end of it, you laying down the law on the science/ecology.

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3. 

   LibertyFarm Posted 3:04 am
   10 May 2006

   More thanks to you bothLiving as I do on the eastern edge of the "corn belt" in Central Ohio, it's hard for me to understand soy biodiesel and corn-based ethanol being touted as green.  When you've witnessed the industrial model firsthand with all the huge applications of poisons and chemical fertilizer that goes into it, it's plain to see there's nothing green about these "alternative" fuels.
   Keeping fighting the good fight here and exposing this for what it is.

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4. 

   Payton Chung Posted 7:05 am
   22 May 2006

   "The new world we're living in"Excerpts from what Bob Tita from Crain's, the Chicago business paper, wrote about Woertz's appointment at ADM:
   The selection of Ms. Woertz to run the Decatur-based corn and soybean processing giant surprised many in the farm commodity processing industry who expected the company to dip into its own executive ranks or pluck an executive from a competing commodity processor or the food industry.
   "All of us in the ag world look for other aggies in these jobs," said John Campbell, vice president of Ag Processing Inc., a farmer-owned grain processing company in Omaha, Neb. "But she's certainly qualified. It makes sense in a lot of ways."
   ADM is the country's largest producer of ethanol, an alternative to gasoline that's distilled from corn. The company accounts for about 30% of the domestic ethanol production, producing 1.2 billion gallons a year... ADM is also the leading producer of biodiesel in Europe and plans to build two biodiesel plants in the United States. Rising oil prices have also revived interest in bioplastics, which substitutes corn oil for petroleum in the production of plastics. ADM recently said it will begin bioplastics production in Iowa in mid-2008...
   Ms. Woertz's knowledge of the oil industry is seen as a key asset for ADM, whose management ranks are largely made up of executives who know how to buy, sell, transport and process corn and soybeans into cooking oils, starches, sweeteners and animal feeds...
   Ms. Woertz's hiring at ADM also could help thaw the traditionally hostile relationship between ethanol producers and the oil industry, which has bristled for years at the federal tax credits and usage mandates awarded to ethanol producers to stimulate production of ethanol.
   "I think there should be less firing at one another and an understanding of the new world we're living in," Ms. Woertz, a former Chevron Corp. executive, told Crain's.

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