Corn Growers Continue to Urge Ethanol on New York

The National Corn Growers Association (NCGA), working closely with the New York Corn Growers Association, made what it called "great strides" this week telling the "true story" about ethanol to key legislators and agencies, academia and consumers in the Empire State. A particular hurdle that corn growers have faced in New York and the nation was a report by Cornell University Professor David Pimentel, who positioned ethanol as an inefficient and uneconomical fuel. Corn growers met that hurdle head-on in a peer-to-peer meeting Tuesday with Pimentel.

The meeting reportedly was cordial and "interesting," NCGA officials said. Pimentel "listened to our concerns about his report, and we are encouraged that he asked us to provide additional data so that he can re-evaluate his position." A key concern by corn growers is that Pimentel's conclusions that corn ethanol production achieves a negative balance were based on outdated and flawed data. NCGA will provide unbiased information from USDA, the U.S. Department of Energy and other sources refuting Pimentel's claims.

Corn growers also met with other Cornell University professors and researchers to discuss the Pimentel report, Cornell ethanol research and the results of a rural economic impact study commissioned by the New York Corn Growers Association.

"We were very well received by the Cornell staff, who expressed a keen interest in renewable fuels and the impact the ethanol industry would have on the rural economy in New York and nationwide," said York, Neb., farmer Boyd Smith, chairman of the NCGA Ethanol Marketing Committee.

"The rural economic impact study, which would apply not only in New York but in other states where the production of ethanol would benefit economies in rural sectors, indicates that the ethanol industry can sustain approximately 700 jobs through the annual production of 30 million gallons of denatured ethanol plus related co-products," said Kevin Swartley, president of the New York Corn Growers Association, and a corn grower from Romulus, NY. "It is anticipated that these jobs will sustain more than $45 million of economic activity and provide $16 million or more in annual incomes to New Yorkers."

Swartley added that a one-time benefit of about $91 million in economic activity will result from plant construction and from preparation of land for crop production.