Emerging Biofuels: Outlook of Effects on U.S. Grain, Oilseed, and Livestock Markets, 2007

Projections of U.S. ethanol production and its impacts on planted acreage, crop prices, livestock production and prices, trade, and retail food costs are presented under the assumption that current tax credits and trade policies are maintained. The projections were made using a multi-product, multi-country deterministic partial equilibrium model. The impacts of higher oil prices, a drought combined with an ethanol mandate, and removal of land from the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) relative to baseline projections are also presented. The results indicate that expanded U.S. ethanol production will cause long-run crop prices to increase. In response to higher feed costs, livestock farmgate prices will increase enough to cover the feed cost increases. Retail meat, egg, and dairy prices will also increase. If oil prices are permanently $10-per-barrel higher than assumed in the baseline projections, U.S. ethanol will expand significantly. The magnitude of the expansion will depend on the future makeup of the U.S. automobile fleet. If sufficient demand for E-85 from flex-fuel vehicles is available, corn-based ethanol production is projected to increase to over 30 billion gallons per year with the higher oil prices. The direct effect of higher feed costs is that U.S. food prices would increase by a minimum of 1.1% over baseline levels. Results of a model of a 1988-type drought combined with a large mandate for continued ethanol production show sharply higher crop prices, a drop in livestock production, and higher food prices. Corn exports would drop significantly, and feed costs would rise. Wheat feed use would rise sharply. Taking additional land out of the CRP would lower crop prices in the short run. But because long-run corn prices are determined by ethanol prices and not by corn acreage, the long-run impacts on commodity prices and food prices of a smaller CRP are modest. Cellulosic ethanol from switchgrass and biodiesel from soybeans do not become economically viable in the Corn Belt under any of the scenarios. This is so because high energy costs that increase the prices of biodiesel and switchgrass ethanol also increase the price of cornbased ethanol. So long as producers can choose between soybeans for biodiesel, switchgrass for ethanol, and corn for ethanol, they will choose to grow corn. Cellulosic ethanol from corn stover does not enter into any scenario because of the high cost of collecting and transporting corn stover over the large distances required to supply a commercial-sized ethanol facility.

Emerging Water Quality Issues, March 2001

Report produced by Iowa Department of Natural Resources about water quality issues.

Audit report on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) - Program of Competitive Grants for Worker Training and Placement in High Growth and Emerging Industry Sectors program for the Iowa Green Renewable Electrical Energy Network Inc. (IGREEN) for the year ended June 30, 2012

Audit report on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) - Program of Competitive Grants for Worker Training and Placement in High Growth and Emerging Industry Sectors program for the Iowa Green Renewable Electrical Energy Network Inc. (IGREEN) for the year ended June 30, 2012

Emerging Threats to Iowa's Forests, Communities, Wood Industry and Economy, 2013

Iowa’s three million acres of forest land provide environmental benefits to all Iowans in terms of soil erosion control, air quality, and water quality. In 2013, more than 6.5 million trees died. Within those trees there were more than 125 million board feet of wood, compared to 98 million board feet of wood harvested. This level of mortality is the highest level reported from US Forest Service inventories in twenty years. This is disturbing when considering more than 18,000 Iowans are employed in the wood products and manufacturing industry, generating nearly $4 billion in annual sales, more than $900 million in annual payroll and more than $25 million to private woodland owners annually from the sale of timber.

Developing Iowa’s Bio-science Workforce: The Role of the Community Colleges of Iowa In Creating Skilled Workers for the Emerging Bio-science/Biotechnology Sector, 2006

The Iowa economy is undergoing great change. Among the sectors deemed important to Iowa’s economic future is bioscience. Definition of what constitutes the bioscience sector but suggests it includes agricultural, medical, plant-life sciences, and related industrial activity.

2000 Transportation Scholars Conference: Compendium of Papers, 2000

Compendium of papers presented at the Transportation Scholars Conference in 2000.