Secretary of agriculture tells farmers to grow fuel

He also visited pig farmers who complained about ethanol

By: By Paul Woolverton | THE FAYETTEVILLE OBSERVER<br></br>MCCLATCHY-TRIBUNE EXCHANGE
Published: November 22, 2009

FAYETTEVILLE

American farmers, known for providing the nation with food and fiber, need to add another product to their catalog: Energy.

That was the message U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack had for about 230 people gathered at the Kiwanis Club's Farm City Week Friday afternoon in Fayetteville. He appeared with U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge, N.C. Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler and N.C. Farm Bureau president Larry Wooten.

Farmers need to expand to fuel and power production to help the United States transition away from dependence on foreign oil, Vilsack said.

"We need to turn our farm fields into the energy fields they're capable of being," Vilsack said.

Every state should be involved, he said.

"It has to give us the capacity as a country to release the stranglehold that other nations have on this country when it comes to energy and the supply."

Earlier Friday, Vilsack visited a hog farm in Harnett County that captures methane from hog manure and uses it to produce electricity. Similar efforts are under way across the country, he said.

The U.S. has been expanding production of corn-based ethanol as a replacement for gasoline, in part, to reduce dependence on foreign oil.

Pork farmers have complained that ethanol demand has driven corn prices so high that it has become too expensive to feed their livestock, and they now lose money on each hog sold to the slaughterhouse.

Vilsack said he appreciates the farmers' position, but said other factors likely affected the price of corn, such as transportation costs.

However, he said, the country is looking for other sources of ethanol, such as grasses, manure and agricultural waste.

He also said Chinese officials said last week that they are continuing to take steps to reopen their market to American pork.

China had been the No. 2 market for American pork, but after the H1N1 swine flu virus outbreak was reported in April, China closed its doors to most U.S. pork producers.

The U.S. government is trying to help pork farmers by purchasing $50 million worth of meat to distribute in federal food programs, Vilsack said.

That purchase was announced last week. It follows a similar, $30 million purchase announced in September.