COMMENTARY
Co-ops’ role in renewable energy economy
Editor’s note: the following remarks are excerpted from a talk
Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns gave during a reception hosted
by the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives at USDA
headquarters in Washington, D.C., in June.
The public’s appetite for renewable energy and the
President's renewable energy goal are both pulling us to a
new era. Today, the market is driving more of the decisions
that farmers make about what crops they plant. It’s shaping
the choices that your cooperatives are making about how to
organize your businesses and where to invest your equity.
Cooperatives are a vital part of the economic well-being of
rural America. For more than 80 years, you've been delivering
collective purchasing and marketing power to our farmers,
and you have often been the first to see and act on new
opportunities, such as renewable energy and the opportunity
that it presents today.
I want to urge you to continue to work aggressively to
make sure your members’ equity is invested wisely and that it
remains transparent and that it benefits the future generations
as you have benefited in the past.
We are fortunate today that we have a very strong
economy. Except for cotton, prices for major commodity
crops are relatively high and in some areas historically high.
We are showing great strength in agricultural exports as well.
We expect them to top $77 billion this year. This is shaping
up to be our fourth record year in a row and the eighth
straight year of growth.
What all this means is that more farmers are working for
themselves, and that’s a good thing. Farmers tell me that’s a
good thing. In March, U.S. farmers reported to us that they
have planted 90.5 million acres of corn this year, 15 percent
more than last year, and the most corn we have seen in the
ground since 1944. That means we hope for a record crop of
12.5 billion bushels in 2007, 2 billion more than last year. So
farmers are responding to the marketplace, and then some.
But we know that to break our dependence on foreign oil, we
can’t solely rely on ethanol from corn. We must also support
the market as it seeks out alternative feedstocks to meet our
present energy needs and the energy needs of the future.
That’s why we propose $1.6 billion in new spending for this
year's Farm Bill to speed up the development and the
production of renewable fuels.
The focus of our research effort will be relative to
cellulosic ethanol, a practical and cost-effective alternative
fuel. But we also want to see progress in other areas, including
making more use of methane to generate electric power.
I know many dairy cooperatives are already working in this
area, and I applaud them for their efforts. Part of our
renewable energy proposal calls for an additional $500 million
in funding for a grant program that funds energy efficiency
and alternative energy projects. This program has already
helped fund more than 90 methane-to-energy projects around
this country.
In fact, since 2002, USDA Rural Development has
provided a total of $37 million to support methane-to-energy
projects. That investment has leveraged more than $122
million in other funds.
These types of investments made by USDA, and the type
many of your co-ops are making, will help reduce our
dependence on foreign oil.
We appreciate the great work you do out there for
American agriculture. We appreciate all you do, and I look
forward to working with you as your Secretary of Agriculture.
Mike Johanns, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture
