CAST Commentary on Agricuture-Energy Available

The Council for Agricultural Science and Technology located in Ames, Iowa, is releasing a new CAST commentary. The report is titled Convergence of Agriculture and Energy: II. Producing Cellulosic Biomass for Biofuels. The release of the report coincides with two major meetings held in the United States this past week that focus on the topic. Last week in Des Moines The World Food Prize Symposium discussed Biofuels and Biofoods: The Global Challenges of Emerging Technologies and the Brookings Institute held its Opportunity 2008-- Iowa Forum on Energy and National Security.

"Current biofuel production in the United States relies primarily on conversion of corn grain to ethanol, but future systems are expected to depend more extensively on plant biomass," says Task Force Chair Dr. Steve Fales, associate director of the Office of Biorenewables Program at Iowa State University.

The full text of Convergence of Agriculture and Energy: II. Producing Cellulosic Biomass for Biofuels (CAST Commentary QTA 2007-2) is available online without charge at the CAST website (www.cast-science.org), along with many of CAST's other scientific publications.

CAST is an international consortium of 38 scientific and professional societies. It assembles, interprets, and communicates credible science-based information regionally, nationally, and internationally to legislators, regulators, policymakers, the media, the private sector, and the public.

Wallace's Farmer, Oct. 25, 2007