A few days ago, agribusiness giant Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) let the rest of the world know what the company's future in bioenergy will look like. When ADM talks biofuels, it's sensible it to pay attention. This is one of the world's largest processors of soybeans, corn and wheat, after all, and if they're going to expand biofuel production, it impacts a lot of us. Patricia Woertz, CEO and President, said ADM is considering expanding its origination presence in palm in Indonesia, sugar in Brazil and other carbohydrates around the world in order to produce more biofuels.

Woertz is the ex-Chevron executive who once said it was, "time to stop mixing agricultural policy with fuels policy." This week, she said ADM has, "three strategic areas that offer the highest potential for significant, value-added growth: expansion of the geographic scope of our core model, diversification of our feedstocks and growth of the bioenergy business. Technology and innovation are key to driving growth in these areas."

You can read all of Woertz's comments after the jump.

Related:

• Ethanomics - good for ADM, bad for farmers
• An ex-Chevron exec's change of heart on ethanol

[Source: Archer Daniels Midland Company]

Energy companies like Chevron cannot throw enough money at ethanol research these days. It certainly wasn't always like this. In 1999, a Chevron exec, Patricia Woertz, who was then head of refining, said it was "time to stop mixing agricultural policy with fuels policy." Today, Woertz has seen the light, and it is a corn-powered green.

Woertz's shift in attitude might have something to do with her new job. She is now the chief executive of Archer Daniels Midland, the agribusiness giant that is pushing like mad to promote ethanol made from corn. Woertz now says that ethanol will make up 10 percent of the U.S. gasoline supply sometime in the next ten years and that ADM will take the lead in producing cellulosic ethanol when the technology is available to make it efficiently. Woertz explains her change of heart on ethanol on an evolving energy market. Fair enough. We'll see where she's at seven years hence.

[Source: International Herald Tribune]