FARM ALCOHOL FIELD DAY
The first Farm Alcohol Field was sponsored by the Iowa Corn Promotion Board (ICPB) and the Iowa Development Commission.
Mike Kerley tells why 1,500 Iowa farmers left their
cornfields to attend a...
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TULLAHOMA '79 January/February 1980 As most of you already know, MOTHER'S alcohol fuel research has...
Last July—in a huge, dirt-floored exhibition hall
where some of the finest show cattle in the nation are
generally put on display—1,500 Iowa farmers got
together for a different kind of show, The
occasion was the first Farm Alcohol Field Day, jointly
sponsored by the Iowa Corn Promotion Board (ICPB) and the
Iowa Development Commission... with the cooperation of the
U.S. Department of Energy. It was one of the first
opportunities for experts in the "art and science" of
producing fuel-grade grain alcohol in small, farm-scale
plants to gather in one place... so that the farmers
(who'll be the ones to build and operate such
installations) could get at them.
Now it takes more than fancy theories and "pie-in-the-sky"
fantasies to get a passel of hard-workin' sodbusters to
spend a summer Saturday listenin' to speeches... especially
when the jaw-bonin' takes place in a sizzling hot glorified
cow barn! So when the professional men of the soil" jammed
into the State Fairgrounds Livestock Exhibition Hall in Des
Moines, Iowa to listen to the experts discuss on-farm
alcohol fuel production, you can bet the farmers were
bankin' on hearing some worthwhile information.
"Iowa farmers have decided that they're not going to wait
for the day when their tractors sit idle for lack of fuel,"
explained Thurman Gaskill, ICPB chairman. "They're looking
for energy alternatives," he continued, "and many have
expressed a desire to learn about producing alcohol on
their farms as a means of stretching their fuel supplies."
Gaskill (and who could make up a better name for someone
involved in the fight against petroleum dependence?) went
on to say, "Farmers want to know how to construct an
alcohol still, what's involved in maintaining such
equipment, what the cost factors of distillation are, and
what permits must be obtained." He might have added that
Iowa's corn growers (and the ICPB) are interested in
alcohol fuel for another reason, as well: