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California Association of Wheat Growers (CAWG)

July 02, 2007

PETERSON ANNOUNCES DUAL MARK-UP PLAN FOR FARM BILL.  House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) announced publicly Friday that he plans to create two mark-ups for consideration by the full committee, one assuming the current budget baseline and one with extra authorizations in the event the Committee can tap into the so-called farm bill “reserve fund,” worth up to $20 billion. 

The federal budget has been the biggest roadblock in the 2007 Farm Bill negotiations thus far. Because of the relative success of the 2002 Farm Bill’s commodity title, which spent about $25 billion less than expected, and federal budget rules, Members have significantly less money with which to write new farm policy this year. Additionally, under Congressional pay-go rules, spending above the policy baseline, including from the $20 billion reserve fund, has to be offset.

Peterson has indicated that he is interested in adjusting Title I programs to provide more equity among crops. According to press reports, Peterson said Friday that funding would be found in the non-reserve bill through crop insurance reforms and changes in the timing of program payments. Fruits and vegetables would also get a $685 million boost.

Peterson indicated both versions of the mark-up language will be released July 6 and the full Agriculture Committee will mark them up starting July 17, aiming for floor action following week.

TPA TO EXPIRE SATURDAY; FOUR TRADE MEASURES MIGHT MOVE.  Trade Promotion Authority, which allows the executive branch to negotiate trade agreements subject to an up-or-down vote in Congress, is set to expire at midnight Saturday. Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.), who chair the committees with jurisdiction over TPA in their respective chambers, have indicated getting agreement on TPA renewal will be challenging.

Four free trade measures - with Colombia, Peru, Panama and South Korea - are currently pending. It appears that agreements signed by TPA’s expiration may be considered without the possibility for amendments. The Peru, Colombia and Panama agreements are likely to make this deadline, though the fate of the Korea agreement is less clear. U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab has said she would like to see all the agreements finalized by Congress in July.

TPA is an important catalyst for free trade agreements because many countries are skeptical to negotiate with the U.S. knowing Congress has the ability to amend an agreement. Trade is essential to the U.S. wheat industry, which exports about half its product and recognizes its prospects for growth are greatest with improved access to overseas markets. Pending FTAs with Colombia and Peru, for example, will immediately eliminate import duties on U.S. wheat and are expected to spur an additional $200 million of U.S. wheat purchases per year.

NAWG and U.S. Wheat Associates support the continuation of TPA to get a successful Doha Round, provided that U.S. negotiators protect domestic farm policies from being negotiated away and our trade partners provide equitable market access.

SCIENTISTS DEVELOP BIOBUTANOL FROM WHEAT STRAW.  Scientists from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service (ARS) are experimenting with a way to convert cellulosic biomass into biobutanol using the bacterium Clostridium beijerinckii.

Biobutanol (butyl alcohol) can become an important renewable transportation fuel because it has a higher energy content than ethanol. It can be used in the existing gasoline supply and distribution lines, has higher octane number, and can be mixed with gasoline in any proportion (earlier post). It is also a valuable chemical.

Biobutanol can be readily be produced from any starch source, obtained from annual crops such as corn, rice or barley. However, due to the prohibitive cost of these grains and cereals and because of the need to balance food and fuel production, use of lignocellulosic biomass residues is the way forward.

The ARS scientists report in Biotechnology for Fuels and Chemicals that a microbial culture such as Clostridium beijerinckii P260 can utilize five and six carbon sugars present in cellulosic biomass and convert them to butanol.

In order to reduce the cost of butanol production, the researchers hydrolyzed wheat straw to lignocellulosic component sugars (glucose, xylose, arabinose, galactose, and mannose) prior to their conversion to butanol. The rate of production of wheat straw hydrolysate to butanol was 214% over that from glucose.

Wheat straw was pretreated with dilute sulfuric acid and hydrolyzed to simple sugars using commercial carbohydrases. Hydrolysis, fermentation, and product recovery were combined in a single step using a 2.5 L bioreactor. Pretreated wheat straw was successfully hydrolyzed to produce glucose, xylose, arabinose, galactose, and mannose, and these sugars were fermented by C. beijerinckii.

The fermentation performance was enhanced by simultaneously recovering products [Acetone-butanol (AB)] from the fermentation broth by gas stripping, thereby, avoiding end product inhibition. The reactor was operated in a fed-batch mode, and the fermentation lasted for more than 500 hours.

These studies, part of a larger project called Cost-Effective Bioprocess Technologies for Production of Biofuels from Lignocellulosic Biomass, demonstrated that production of AB from wheat straw in a single reactor is possible when hydrolytic enzymes are used and product (AB) is simultaneously produced and recovered.

Successful production of economically available butanol from wheat straw by fermentation will benefit farmers, the butanol producing industry and the public at large. Development of such a fuel by an economically viable process is essential as gasoline prices are rising steadily.