http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010717/bs/farm_scene_74.html
Tuesday July 17 1:13 AM ET Feds Give Soybean Farmers Good News Feds Give Soybean Farmers Good News By KIM DURNAN, Associated Press Writer DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - Increasing the demand for soy-based products such as biodiesel would be a significant economic boon to farmers, according to a federal report. Boosting demand for soybeans by 1.5 billion pounds per year would increase the annual U.S. net farm income by an average of 0.7 percent over the 2001-10 period, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (news - web sites) report released Monday. The study was prepared at the request of Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who has urged the Department of Energy (news - web sites) to officially list biodiesel as an alternative fuel. Iowa leads the nation in soybean production. "This report is very good news for soybean producers," Grassley said. "Their commodity is the basis for value-added products that increase farm income, enhance rural communities, make America more energy independent, and clean up the environment." He called biodiesel "a proven success in making conventional diesel engines burn cleaner." Biodiesel, made from either soybean oil or recycled vegetable oil, avoids the release of carbon monoxide and small particles that occurs when traditional diesel is burned. It doesn't cut down on smog-causing nitrogen oxide, however. Karen Andersen-Schank, a manager with the Iowa Soybean Promotion Board, said the Midwest in particular stands to benefit from any increase in biodiesel production. "It makes sense to produce the fuel where the soybeans are grown," she said. Widespread production of a fuel mix containing biodiesel would have a huge impact on soybean farmers, even if the fuel is only 2 percent biodiesel, Andersen-Schank said. Producing such a mixture would create demand for 600 million gallons of biodiesel oil a year, produced from 400 million bushels of soybeans, she said. Iowa produced 459 million bushels in all of last year. Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Please do NOT send "unsubscribe" messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
