Emerging Trends Session II
Policy for the Growing Bioeconomy: Feedstock Supply
Moderator: Brendan Jordan, Program Manager for Biomass Programs, Great Plains Instituteams, Biomass Institute
John E. Sellers
John E. Sellers, Jr. served as president of the switchgrass growers association for the Chariton Valley Biomass Project from 1998-2003. The Chariton Valley Biomass Project is a cooperative effort between the Chariton Valley Resource Conservation and Development Inc., Alliant Energy, Prairie Lands Biomass LLC, and the U.S. Department of Energy. Based in Southern Iowa, the Project’s partners are seeking to demonstrate the technical and commercial feasibility of producing power from locally-grown and harvested renewable fuel resources: switchgrass and other native southern Iowa grasses. Although he no longer serves as president, Sellers continues to produce switchgrass for the project. He will share the lessons that he learned from organizing a switchgrass supply network in southern Iowa.
Burton C. English
Burton C. English is a professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Business at The Universty of Tennessee. He has worked on agricultural policy and biomass for energy issues since 1977. He worked as a Staff Economist at Iowa State before moving to Tennessee, and has published in excess of 75 manuscripts including the editing of three books. In 1984, he planned and organized a symposium on Future Agricultural Technology and Resource Conservation. This effort was followed with a similar symposium held in 1995.
He has received several honors connected to his work including a Certificate of Merit from the United States Department of Agriculture and the 1996 University of Tennessee’s Chancellors Award for Research. He is frequently called upon for advice by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency, and Congress.
Patrick Girouard 
Patrick Girouard joined Iogen in August of 2002 as Market Analyst for Iogen Energy. Before joining the company, Girouard worked with Molson Breweries in sales market analysis. Girouard also worked for several years in biomass energy research. At Iogen, he has worked with the commercialization group to identify potential locations for the first commercial cellulose ethanol facility. More recently, he has focused on feedstock procurement, leading the straw purchase process in Western Canada where more than 800 producers signed straw purchase option agreements with Iogen to supply straw to potential cellulose ethanol facilities. He contributed to a similar program in Southeast Idaho. Patrick has a B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Agricultural Economics/Agri-Business from McGill University.
Lloyd Ritter
Lloyd Ritter is an aide to U.S. Senator Tom Harkin. Harkin is the ranking Democrat on the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee, and has championed the use of biorenewables in Washington. He has touted biobased products by educating fellow members of Congress and federal contractors about how they can replace conventional products derived from petroleum with biobased products. In 2005, he worked with the American Farm Bureau Federation, the American Soybean Association, the Environmental and Energy Study Institute, the National Corn Growers Association and the National Farmers Union to display biobased products and biorenewables technologies on Capitol Hill. Biobased vendors from around the country demonstrated such products as soybased ink, carpet and plastics made of corn, building panels made of wheat and rice, and cleaning solutions made from soybean plants.
Harkin has advocated making the Capitol complex and the federal government a leader in the transition to products using home-grown renewable materials. He says the biobased products can improve America's economy while reducing our dependence on foreign oil and improving the environment.