In a 4.4 billion deal, the agriculture company Bunge Ltd. will buy out Corn Products International, Inc.  The buyout was announced this morning, according to this article.

 From the article:

The buyout will combine Corn Products’ sweeteners, starches and other ingredients with Bunge’s portfolio of agribusiness, fertilizer, edible oil and milling products.

The global market for starches and sweeteners alone is growing at approximately 5 percent each year, and Corn Products has some of the biggest beer and food makers in the world as clients.

I have to wonder if this will impact current ethanol production.  A recent post at the Cellulosic Ethanol blog announced that 58 members of congress signed a letter encouraging the EPA to pursue the development of cellulosic ethanol.  I haven’t been able to find any information to back that up or which congress members would have signed the letter if this piece of information is true.  I’d be interested in knowing whether North Dakota Senators Byron Dorgan and Kent Conrad participated, but I haven’t seen anything on either of their web sites.  A contact at the region 8 office of the EPA didn’t know anything about the letter.  Maybe the information is old or incorrect.  (If anyone knows anything more about this, please let me know.)  

 With the global demand for corn as food increasing, it makes sense that we should put more energy into research and development of cellulosic ethanol. 

Meanwhile, states like North Dakota that have the potential to both promote cellulosic ethanol and develop other forms of energy production (including wind energy production, coal mining and oil from drilling areas like the Bakken formation) can and should continue to develop those energy sources.