Jean Bernick, the editor of Farm Journal Crops & Issues, is exhorting us “to talk trash.” Funny, isn’t it? Hold back though, because Bernick is not asking you to spite the vilest epithet at your opponent. No! She wants a discussion on how the corncob, that we normally consider trash, can effectively be used to produce cellulosic ethanol.

Bernick says there’s plenty of a corncob in cornfields, but, unfortunately, the agricultural machinery industry hasn’t found the technology to move it to biorefineries. Since”…cellulosic ethanol is around the corner”, Bernick wants the agricultural machinery industry to redouble efforts to find efficient technology to move corncob from the field without complicating the grain harvesting process.

It seems Bernick is not alone. The debate about the advantages of cellulosic ethanol is finding a life of its own. The North Dakota-based
Jamestown Sun today has an editorial on the future of the ethanol industry. The editorial lists the challenges facing the ethanol industry. Particularly, it highlights the growing opposition toward food crops-based ethanol, and poses the question: Where should we be going with ethanol? Noting that environmentalists remain strongly opposed to food-crops-based ethanol, the editorial advises “…where we would like to be going is to cellulosic ethanol, which uses nonfood crops such as switch grass, crop waste or material like wood chips as raw materials.”

Just like Bernick, Jamestown Sun, however,worries that the “…technology and industry aren’t there yet for commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol refining.” So, what’s the way forward? We all acknowledge times are difficult and that raising capital to develop new technologies for cellulosic ethanol refining is a hard nut to crack. The private sector can’t shoulder this burden alone. It needs help from the government. President-Elect Barack Obama has already pledged to pump money into the production of clean energy. Cellulosic ethanol is one of them. Giving the agricultural machinery industry a leg up, in the form of financial assistance, to produce cutting edge technology to produce cellulosic ethanol would definitely be a big milestone in making the U.S. energy independent.