Here is an compelling story out of Washington State, where one concerned citizen is taking steps to see if she can take an environmental plight on Washington lakes, known as the plant milfoil, and make that pest into biofuels.  Good luck Alanna Mitchell.

Farmweek interviewsJohn Mizroch, the Department of Energy’s Acting Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.  Key quote:

“The current ethanol industry has grown remarkably fast, and has done well in offering ethanol as (a gasoline) oxygenate, as an alternative to fuel itself,” Mizroch told FarmWeek. “I don’t personally believe it has added significantly to the price of food commodities. I think our industry could sustain up to the limits of the RFS.”

Click here to read about some interesting biofuels possibilities in Haiti.

Click here to read the story.

FoodPriceTruth.org has been questioning the real reason for food price increases.  Well, it seems the Justice Dept. is too!

Here is a Reuters article claiming: U.S. soy, corn fall on weak oil, investors uncertain

Corn and soy prices track with oil, because oil prices impact nearly every aspect of farming, transporting and selling those commodities.  Wall Street gets it, because on Wall Street understanding how the markets work means either making, or losing money.

For ethanol’s opponents at the World Bank and various “environmental” groups, bashing ethanol is done for sport where there are no consequences for being wrong. Well, except that if they are successful, we will lose an industry that offers the only viable alternative to oil.

The New York Times had a story yesterday about getting energy from currents in the oceans…or even the East Rives.  Like biofuels, there are a lot of challenges. And like biofuels, taking action to overcome those hurdles is worthwhile.

Minnesota Public Radio has an interesting report about a Wisconsin biofuels company, Virent Energy Systems, that transforms sugar into fuel.  

 The small biorefinery is a complex piece of machinery, but essentially it works this way; sugar water goes in one end and gasoline comes out the other. The secret is a patented inorganic catalyst material that triggers a chemical reaction.

More evidence from across the pond that second generation biofuels really offer so much hope for a better future.

We all know that food companies continue to make hefty profits by raising their prices to outpace commodity costs, but here are some good examples of shrinking food serving sizes:

• While the Skippy jar remains the same height and diameter as it did when it contained a full 18 ounces of peanut butter, a deeper indentation on the bottom accounts for the loss of 1.7 ounces.
• A box of Kellogg’s Apple Jacks, down from 11 to 8.7 oz.;
• A can of Starkist tuna, shrunk from 6 to 5 oz.;
• A bottle of Tropicana orange juice, which sports a new snap cap that’s supposed to make up for the fact that you’re getting 7 oz. less liquid; and
• A “half-gallon” container of Breyers Ice Cream, which now holds 48 oz. instead of 64.

Thanks to Wallet Pop for fidning this.

The UN, in all its wisdom, has again launched a ridiculous claim against biofuels saying that biofuels are to blame for 75% of the rise in food costs. If this weren’t so depressingly false, it would be laughable.  The UN does not even consider oil to be a factor in food prices worth mentioning!