Missouri, heart of Midwest, poised to take major role in biofuel production
Who would have thought a year ago that President George W. Bush’s State of the Union address would admit to our nation’s “addiction to oil” and mention agriculture — even suggesting switchgrass — as part of our new energy supply?
We are now experiencing a major change in the country’s thinking about our reliance on fossil fuels. The complex war on terrorism, rising energy prices, global weather events and rapidly changing geopolitics, as well as many other forces, have suddenly made the concept of renewable energy mainstream.
The Midwest has become the go-to source for biofuels. In Columbia, the Missouri Farmers Association is leading the nation in support of biofuels. Ethanol plants have sprung up across the state and the Corn Belt — most built in cooperation with corn growers in a structure of distributed, rather than centralized, ownership. The nation’s soybean crop provides not only food and feed but also fuel from biodiesel plants that blend soy oil with diesel. Decades-old research efforts exploring agriculture’s ability to provide a renewable feedstock for the nation’s energy supply are now gaining the spotlight, and most certainly the nation will be looking to agriculture and rural America to help satisfy our appetite for energy.
National attention to this challenge culminated last month in St. Louis, as the president, the secretaries of energy and agriculture and their undersecretaries gathered with 1,500 other researchers, policy makers and venture capitalists on how to direct the nation’s best science and innovation toward this urgent need.
It was likely no coincidence that the meeting was held in Missouri. We are the heart of the Midwest, as well as the crossroads of crop producer organizations (National Corn Growers, American Soybean Association), industry (Monsanto, Bunge) and plant science research (University of Missouri, Danforth Center, Missouri Botanical Garden, Washington University).
The state’s long-held strategy for the life sciences is paying off. We have long known we are globally competitive — a major hub for the plant sciences from Columbia to St. Louis and for the animal health industry from Columbia to the Kansas City/St. Joseph corridor. Missouri’s life science strategy has always had at its core the human health/medical focus, which continues to grow. But few might have guessed how quickly our public and private expertise in the agricultural life sciences would be needed by the nation, if not the world.
Missouri’s best researchers are working collaboratively on how to improve today’s corn and soybean crops as national energy feedstocks. Most importantly, they also are drafting plans to compete for national recognition and funding in the design of tomorrow’s renewable energy systems. The nation’s need, and certainly research from our laboratories, will likely transform the economies of rural and metro America alike.
Good science, good policy and broad public participation in designing our new energy systems will be necessary to prevent being caught in a crisis again. A whole new opportunity for the University of Missouri and state has emerged. Let’s make the most of it.