The following post was submitted by Richard Hamilton, president and CEO of Ceres, Inc. Technology is playing a critical role in maximizing the inherent advantages of dedicated energy crops. Through advanced plant breeding, public and private researchers are increasing yields both in terms of tons…

One of the many flaws of the Science Magazine studies on biofuels and land use changes is their assumption that an acre of crops dedicated to biofuels in America will lead to an acre of deforestation elsewhere in the world. In fact, in a recent interview with the Nature Conservancy (his employer)…

Biofuels are great! There. I've been wanting to say that. And I say that not just because I work here at BIO, but because the science in the Science papers needs a little examining. There is misinformation all over the blogosphere. For example, Siko, in the German Carzone posting the following…

The papers published in Science two weeks ago continue to make headlines, as a quick search of Google News will show. Also this week, oil reached the $100 per barrel mark. Meanwhile, debate over the Science papers continues, and some truths are out there, as we said when we began this public forum…

Reaction to the ScienceXpress articles by Searchinger et al. and Tilman et al. has focused on the assumptions the teams of authors used in measuring greenhouse gas emissions from changes in land use. As Michigan State University Professor of Chemical Engineering Bruce Dale points out, Both of these…

The final numbers are in and we have good reason to celebrate (perhaps we should get a three-day weekend?!) - there were a record number of institutional investors at the CEO & Investor Conference, 1,050 in total. Most of the more than 200 company presentations were full rooms, since in total…

The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 establishes an ambitious renewable fuel standard that increases biofuel production and use to 36 billion gallons by 2022. The standard also mandates that renewable fuels produced in new facilities constructed after enactment of the Act, which…

The journal Science published two papers: Use of U.S. Croplands for Biofuels Increases Greenhouse Gases Through Emissions from Land Use Change Land Clearing and the Biofuel Carbon Debt in their online, early publication ScienceXpress that suggest that the production and use of biofuels may…

Despite a delayed train, I got home at 11:30 last night, not too bad considering how bad it could have been! At least the thirty minute delay allowed me to hang out with Mary from Amtrak who repeatedly got requests from folks trying to move up their reservations and she had the pleasure of turning…

Industrial biotech does it all. The Third Wave in biotech is looking bright for the future. Industrial biotech represents the confluence of market demand and the potential for market solution, according to David Berry, MD, PhD of Flagship Ventures - one of the panel speakers. Synthetic…