Proceedings 2006

Indiana Certified Crop Adviser Conference

Economic Benefits/Challenges to Biofuels Expansion

This session will assess some of the economic benefits of biofuels' development and also look at the challenges that such industry expansion presents. Biofuels will be placed in the context of the overall energy concerns of the U.S. Issues such as energy independence, getting the most value for public energy related subsidies, and competition between food and fuel will be highlighted.

Otto Doering Professor of Agricultural Economics and Public Policy Specialist
Purdue University
doering@purdue.edu

Otto C. Doering III is Professor of Agricultural Economics and Public Policy Specialist at Purdue University. He has research, teaching, adult education, and public service responsibilities on economic policy issues affecting agriculture and natural resources. In 2004-2005 he was Senior University Fellow at the Natural Resources Conservation Service. He served as a member of the Indiana Commission for Higher Education from 2001-2003. He previously served as principal advisor to the Natural Resources Conservation Service for implementing the conservation provisions of the 1996 Farm Act, as Visiting Scholar with the Economic Research Service, U.S.D.A. analyzing environmental issues for the 1990 farm bill, and as Visiting Policy Analyst at U.S.D.A. for the 1977 farm bill. He was team leader for the National Hypoxia Assessment’s economic analysis (1997-1999) and Director of Indiana’s independent state utility forecasting group (1985-90). He has been a visiting professor at North Carolina A&T State University (1997), Cornell University (1990), and at the University of California, Berkeley (1981). Dr. Doering has served as a Director of the American Agricultural Economics Association and is its President Elect. He has also been Chairman of the National Public Policy Education Committee. He has been a consultant to the National Academy of Sciences and the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment. He is a National Science Foundation evaluator for the Industry/University Cooperative Research Program. He has three years of field experience in Southeast Asia and also has worked as a horse wrangler and as a legal investigator. He has a B.A. degree in Government from Cornell University, an M Sc.(Econ.) from the London School of Economics, and a Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from Cornell.