Daily Staff Writer

Leaders in the biotech industry met Tuesday to discuss the future of agriculture’s role in renewable energy.

The “A Call to Action Summit,” held in the Scheman Building, focused on ensuring Iowa’s leadership in the bioeconomy. The summit drew hundreds from all over Iowa in the areas of private industry, government and education.

The morning featured a series of keynote speakers focusing on topics such as the implications of bioenergy for agricultural production, by Craig A. Lang, president of the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation.

Lang focused on ways the bioeconomy field will benefit Iowa and reduce reliance on foreign energy. He also emphasized that renewable energy adds value to land.

Lang also stated issues of concern. He said several challenges stand in the way of fulfilling the 25x’25 Initiative to make 25 percent of all energy come from renewable sources by 2025. Specifically, he said, producers will have to focus on sustainability to keep up with the tripling demand for energy in developing countries, and an expected general world growth of 3.8 percent over the next two decades.

“It will be difficult to meet 25 percent in two decades when the demand continues to rise and conservation is not a main strategy,” Lang said.

Earlier in the morning, speakers discussed a variety of issues and made the point that Iowa will have to create its competitive advantages in advanced renewable fuels, stressing the fact that any state with agricultural or forestry resources can compete in this emerging industry.

The afternoon was broken up into a series of sessions participants could choose to attend, each focusing on a different topic, asking participants to share their ideas to aid in the creation of policies.

After the sessions, everyone came together for an overview of what was discussed, and every group shared the focus on education and training the workforce.

“I can’t tell you how strongly I feel about the need for Iowans to put more money behind education,” Lang said.

Raj Raman, associate professor of biosystems engineering and environmental science at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, led the work session that focused on what Iowa should do to create a trained workforce in support of the bioeconomy.

“There are all kinds of questions as to how to deploy the bioeconomy,” Raman said.

Raman discussed how it is important to focus efforts on K-12 education as a long-term investment, stating how this could possibly prove to be a short-term benefit because strong school districts will attract workers.

“We want to build exciting new programs that will last,” Raman said.

It was also made apparent that coordination among colleges will be important, while avoiding duplication and sharing resources will be key.

“There should be an encouragement of student movement to two to three exceptional programs, instead of a lot of sub-par programs,” said Curt Oldfield, vice president for academic affairs for Northeast Iowa Community College in Peosta.

Although companies do not yet know what their future needs will be, they do know that a background in math and sciences will be imperative.

The overall goal of the sessions was to brainstorm and aid in developing policies regarding the bioeconomy. These recommendations will be compiled into a report, which will be available on the Web site sometime in the near future.

At the end of the day participants found the summit useful, while realizing there is still a lot to learn.

“The what-if presentation [given by Theodore M. Crosbie, chief technology officer, state of Iowa] brought up a lot of questions I hadn’t thought of,” said Chuck Albright, instructor of agriculture at Southeastern Community College in Iowa.