As the hunt for renewable energy sources from agriculture intensifies, many agricultural producers are contemplating what crops to grow in the foreseeable future. On the one hand, there are traditional food crops, such as soybean, corn, and wheat, which have recently enjoyed a spike in prices,...

Two seemingly unrelated topics are discussed- an outlook for biofuels in the southern United States, along with an overview of the important role that information technology is playing in the fuel ethanol industry. The outlook discussion is limited to issues involving the two principal biofuels,...

This article presents current investment and operating costs of ethanol and biodiesel plants for alternative prices of feedstock. The price of these two fuels is estimated for alternative prices of crude oil with the existing renewable fuels policy. The excise tax credit, currently $0.51 per...

As a result of the increase in the real cost of fossil fuel-based energy in recent years, federal and state governments have taken a more active role in energy policy by creating incentives to develop alternative sources of energy, including biofuels. However, policymakers often become focused...

The real advantage of receiving a Southern Agricultural Economics Association Lifetime Achievement award is the ability to make this presentation and have it published without having to deal with editors and referees. This provides a certain license of freedom to abstract outside the box without...

The effects of biofuel production on commodity prices and their transmission to retail food prices are discussed. Factors driving higher commodity prices are tight global supplies and increased demand of corn ethanol in the short term. Evidence suggests that higher corn prices contribute to food...

Analysis of the potential to supply 25% of projected 2025 U.S. transportation fuels indicates sufficient biomass resources are available to meet increased demand while simultaneously meeting food, feed, and export needs. Corn and soybeans continue to be important feedstocks for ethanol and...

This discussion is a review and critique of the three papers in the 2012 Southern Agricultural Economics Association invited paper session titled Causes of Agricultural and Food Price Inflation and Volatility.

U.S. ethanol production capacity increased more than threefold between 2002 and 2008. We study the effect of this growth on corn acreage. Connecting annual changes in county-level corn acreage to changes in ethanol plant capacities, we find a positive effect on planted corn. The building of a...

Motivated by repeated price spikes and crashes over the last decade, we investigate whether the growing market shares of futures speculators destabilize commodity spot prices. We approximate conditional volatility and analyze how it is affected by speculative open interest. In this context, we...