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SC Iowa | Gary, thanks for the insight on the political side of agriculture.
Your comments remind me of several trips we took to California over the past ten years. I was interested in learning about water issues and got hooked up with a group called the Water Education Foundation that offers several tours each year (btw, would highly recommend it as a learning experience).
On one tour we visted the rice growing area around Sacramento and were in the small town of Gridley and noticed huge covered stacks of "something". It turns out the rice growers had made a pact with dnr/epa in the early 90's to stop wholesale burning of rice fields after harvest and had ten year timeframe to stop.
At various times the growers were convinced they could make wallboard, ethanol, or some other product to consume the rice straw----and were baling it and storing for "future use"......believe some of the natives felt it was the biggest rat's nest in the state!
I'm afraid we may be heading that direction right now with switchgrass. The technology always seems to be "just another 2-3 years down the road"....my goodness, that Canadian company Iogen has been working on this for 10-15 years already?? Now, I am sure that a sustained crude spike to $100+ would spur a lot of investment dollars in that area, so who knows what the future will bring...
again, thanks for your comments
Ray J | |
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Forward Contracting Grain
