SD Corn

Some folks just get agriculture (the state’s #1 industry) and how much it means to South Dakota and our rural communities. Near the top of that list are the good people at Midway Service, located just seven miles north of Sioux Falls on Cliff Ave/SD Highway 115 just outside Baltic.

They have been proud advocates of corn farmers and ethanol fuel since the beginning and installed blender pumps back in 2007 offering E10, E30 and E85. Now the long-standing fuel station is offering E15, a blend of 15% ethanol and 85% gasoline, which was recently approved by the EPA for cars and light trucks 2001 or newer.

“Selling E15 is something we have wanted to do since they first started talking about it a few years ago,” said station owner Bruce Vollan. “It makes good economical sense and we hope that it will become the standard fuel someday. “

People have been taking advantage of the financial saving that comes from ethanol as the new blend has more customers filling up with the locally made fuel.

“Since implementing E15, we’ve had outstanding sales and are without a doubt selling more ethanol,” added Vollan.

“The entire local economy benefits from the closed-loop interaction starting with the farmer, the ethanol plants, fuel retailers and loyal customers.”

The next time you’re north of Sioux Falls on SD Hwy 115, we recommend that you stop in and fill up your vehicle with the ethanol blend of your choice at Midway Service.

National Ag Week is great opportunity for agriculture, South Dakota’s number one industry to tell its story. The story of hard work and ingenuity filled with both successes and struggles. Farming has never been easy, but with the continued advancements in seed, equipment technology and farming practices the future looks brighter than ever.

With the average consumer being two, three or even four generations removed from the farm, it’s no wonder why it can be difficult for them to understand the tremendous impact agriculture has on our great state.

Think of it this way, agriculture generates 20% of our state’s economic activity with a total impact of $21 billion annually. One out of every five dollars spent was involved with agriculture.

Have you ever wondered why the economic recession wasn’t nearly as hard on South Dakota as it was on other states? Agriculture’s improving commodity markets, efficiency, production and demand have a lot to do with it. Agriculture is also a huge job creator employing more than 80,000 South Dakotans, around 10% of the state’s total population.

Part of that workforce includes our state’s 46,000 family farmers who each raise enough food to feed 155 people each year! That’s incredible when you consider that just 20 years ago, each farmer only fed 85 people on average.

Whether it’s boosting our economy or nourishing our bodies, South Dakotan’s have agriculture to thank.

Thanks South Dakota Farmers!

How can America reduce its dependence on foreign oil, increase its energy security and create hundreds of thousands of green jobs? The answer is the Renewable Fuel Standard which has accomplished all of those feats in the matter of five short years.

A recent report from the EIA in May 2011 showed that the United States dependence on foreign oil fell from 60.3% in 2005 to 49.3% in 2010, 11% in just five years after implementing the RFS. In that same time, American ethanol production rose from 230,000 barrels per day to 779,000 barrels per day.

In 2010, using just 3% of the worlds grain, the United States  produced more than 13 billion gallons of ethanol which displaced the need for 445 million barrels of imported oil. More than the total imported amount from Saudi Arabia.

To produce that home grown energy, the industry needs skilled workers and lots of them. There is an estimated 400,000 direct and indirect employees in the ethanol business, good-paying jobs in rural America that will never be exported. Estimates from the Renewable Fuels Association show that 70,000 industry jobs were added in 2010.

The RFS is putting educated Americans to work, producing clean, domestic energy and weaning a country off of a dangerous addiction to dirty, foreign oil. The Renewable Fuel Standard is not just working in the United States, it’s thriving.

If you had to guess what a so-called “environmental” group would support when it came down to transportation fuels would you pick: A- old, dirty oil or B- clean, renewable biofuels?

The answer may have you scratching your head but don’t feel bad because you’re not alone. Believe it or not the answer is actually A. The Environmental Working Group (EWG) and spends much of their time putting down biofuels like ethanol, America’s only clean-burning, renewable and readily available alternative to gasoline.

Through fear mongering, scare tactics and half-truths the EWG attempts to sway consumers away from using ethanol which means they continue depending on oil. In their attempts to tear down ethanol its funny how they completely forget to mention the harmful effects of gasoline. While neither fuel is perfect, pretending that gasoline is better for the environment than ethanol is completely false.

Studies clearly show ethanol burns much cleaner as the EPA results showed ethanol producing 52% fewer greenhouse gases and the University of Nebraska results showed ethanol releasing 59% less GHG’s. According to the Argone National Laboratory, ethanol reduced greenhouse gas emissions by a total of 22 million tons in 2010, the equivalent of removing 3.5 million automobiles from American roads.

America currently imports 65% of its petroleum paying out more than $1 billion per day which has been absolutely detrimental to our nation’s economy. The United States has only 2% of the world’s oil but uses 25% of the world’s supply and unless our policies and habits change, our addiction will only become worse.

While alternative fuels like ethanol are not the complete answer to our countries oil addiction, it is certainly a piece of the puzzle as in 2010 American-made ethanol displaced the need for 445 million barrels of oil while using only 3% of the world’s grain. This domestic fuel saved the United States $34 billion by reducing foreign oil purchases.

As our country continues to be held hostage to OPEC’s oil prices, now is the time to support renewable fuels. Ethanol is benefitting the economy, environment, reducing our dependence on foreign oil, improving our nation’s energy security and creating a market for futuristic and cellulosic biofuels. Consumers need to see past the EWG’s big oil agenda which only leads us down the same old road fueled by dirty, imported oil.

FOOD vs. FUEL, an argument started by Big Oil which never seems to cease has been sparked once again. Consumers continue to be misled by monster media outlets reporting old data from biased sources.

But recent reports from experts around world have again proven that farmers and biofuels are not the cause of rising food prices, but that it has much more to do with the cost of oil.

Can you see the connection?

 

The world’s ugly dependence on oil affects nearly every product’s price with transportation and other rising energy costs. Last month the USDA reported that only 11.6% of the food dollar goes back to the farm which is down from previous years while energy and related items consume 33% of that same dollar which is up.

It’s time for consumers to understand just exactly what is causing their grocery bill to grow and it’s also time for them to get behind clean, renewable domestic fuels that will play a vital role towards stabilizing the price of goods, improving our nation’s energy security and overall economy.

Whether you are for or against ethanol production in the United States, an important part of the ethanol equation that can’t be ignored is its economic impact.

Ethanol directly employs over 70,000 and indirectly employs around 400,000 people in the United States. These high paying, green jobs are assisting in rural development across America giving professionals and their families opportunities that weren’t available 10 years ago. Direct and indirect income from ethanol production adds up to $36 billion.

On top of that the ethanol industry adds $53.6 billion to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product. Those totals equaled $8.6 billion in revenue to the federal treasury in 2010 while the ethanol tax credits like VEETC and the small ethanol producers’ tax credit totaled just over $6 billion.

In 2010 the ethanol industry used 4.6 billion bushels of corn grown by local farmers which was valued at more than $18 billion. Total grain used in domestic ethanol production equaled around 3% of the world’s grain which displaced 445 million barrels of oil during 2010 in the United States. That production is valued at $34 billion and through the buying a selling of inputs, energy and labor that money that will always be American.

“American farmers grow and sell the corn, American workers produce and sell the ethanol and American consumers buy ethanol because it’s a local product, it’s better for the environment and it’s reducing our dependence on foreign oil, “ said David Fremark, president of the South Dakota Corn Utilization Council. “For a country with economic problems, domestic ethanol is a pretty easy answer.”

*Source:  CONTRIBUTION OF THE ETHANOL INDUSTRY TO THE ECONOMY OF THE UNITED STATES by Entrix