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Posted on 02/29/2008 8:06:01 AM PST by TigerLikesRooster
Soybean growers hold up University of Minnesota funds to protest biofuels paper
Trade council unhappy with biofuels paper
By Leslie Brooks Suzukamo lsuzukamo@pioneerpress.com
Article Last Updated: 02/28/2008 09:41:51 PM CST
Call it a soybean spat. The University of Minnesota isn't going to receive any research funding from the state's soybean growers council until the two parties have a heart-to-heart talk next week.
The Minnesota Soybean Research and Promotion Council voted to temporarily suspend its financial support after a study co-authored by U researchers in the journal Science said increased use of biofuel crops like corn and soybeans could worsen global warming, not lessen it.
The council typically picks up the tab for $1 million to $2 million a year for research on such things as how to increase soybean yields and how to improve marketing, said Jim Palmer, president of the Minnesota Soybean Growers Association.
The funding relationship has gone on for decades and was good until now, both the growers and the university said.
The study, published Feb. 7 by the University of Minnesota and the Nature Conservancy, an environmental advocacy group, warned that converting prairie or peatland to cropland for corn and soybeans would release more carbon stored in plants and the ground as carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming.
But the soybean-farmers groups, corn growers and some other scientists say the study made faulty assumptions about the amount of land that would be converted to biofuel crops and used obsolete data, said Rob Hanks, chairman of the Minnesota Soybean Research and Promotion Council.
David Tilman, a U professor of ecology who worked on the study, is on sabbatical and could not be reached for comment. The university has had a long history working with the soybean growers, but it supports its researchers even when their results are controversial, said Bev Durgan, director of the Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station and dean of the university's extension.
Palmer said he believes the funding will be restored after the two sides talk, but Hanks warned the amounts may not be the same. Talks are set for March 5, Hanks said.
The Minnesota Corn Growers Association, which has a big stake in biofuels because of corn-based ethanol, also disputed the study's conclusions but did not contemplate withdrawing its financial support, said Roger Moore, the organization's president.
The corn growers plan to talk with university officials about their concerns next week as well, Moore said.
Ping!
....I would really like to see more organizations withhold funding from universities....schools need to be challenged on some of the liberal nonsense they spout....and mostly they want to do it on somebody else’s nickel.
That would be nice but it ain’t what’s happening here. This is a case of a vested interest trying to silence anyone who challenges their agenda. It also backfired because their decision is lending publicity to the idea that biofuels not enviro-friendly.
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Oooh, this almost sounds like envirowhackos vs climatewhackos. :)
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