Illinois Essay Contest Winner Announced

Kaitlin Magsamen of White Heath, Ill., has been named the Illinois winner of the 2009 GROWMARK essay contest for FFA members. The theme of this year’s contest was “Homegrown Fuels: Good for American Agriculture.”

In her contest entry, Magsamen said: “This is a perfect example of the full circle that American dollars would go in because the farmers are the ones growing the crops to make the fuels, and if Americans are the ones buying the fuels, more of the U.S. money is staying in the United States and not leaving the country to buy as much foreign oil, which in turn would help our economy.”

Magsamen is a student at Monticello High School and a member of the Monticello FFA chapter. Her FFA advisor is Bryce Hoffman.

As the contest winner, Magsamen will receive a $500 scholarship from GROWMARK at the Illinois FFA State Convention, held in Springfield during June. The Monticello FFA chapter will also receive a $300 award in honor of her accomplishment to help future students.

Four state runners-up will each receive a $125 scholarship. The runners-up and their FFA chapters are: Savannah Bradford, Leroy FFA; Jamie Kruenegel, Vandalia FFA; Thomas Marten, Lincolnwood FFA; and Amelia Martens, Orion FFA.

Students were asked to describe renewable homegrown fuels made with agricultural commodities and the benefits they provide.

This is the sixteenth year for the program, sponsored by the GROWMARK System and FS member cooperatives, in conjunction with state FFA leaders, to help young people develop their writing skills, learn about current issues in agriculture, and understand the unique role of cooperatives.

Magsamen's essay is below.

Wouldn’t you rather the money you spend on fuel come round trip back to the United States rather than it going to another country? I think that many of us would; it would help our nation’s economy, save the world’s oil supply, and also save you money.

It would help the economy because instead of sending your money overseas it would be coming back to U.S. ethanol producers. It would also lessen our dependence on foreign oil, because ethanol (corn based fuel), biodiesel (soybean based diesel), and E-Diesel (ethanol based diesel) are grown in our country and therefore we would have to import less oil. Matt Busby (Piatt County FS manager) explains perfectly “…our only challenge is that today we can’t produce all we need, but anything that we can produce, it sure limits the amount of foreign oil that we have and the dependence on it.”

Since American famers would be the ones growing the crops for our fuel, you would be supporting the local economy by purchasing homegrown fuels. It would also reserve our oil supply, which statistics show is greatly needed, since oil is a nonrenewable resource and corn and soybeans are renewable. So as long as we have farmers growing corn and soybeans we will always have a source for our fuels.

Most car manufacturers are being very supportive of the move to use ethanol and biodiesel. They have made it so all cars are able to run on at least a 10 percent ethanol blend in any vehicles and at least a 5 percent blend in the diesel. Since car manufacturers are becoming more familiar with the grain based fuels they are continuing to make an attempt to raise the amount of ethanol and biodiesel in all fuels. They are also making a great effort to make cars that run on E-85. There is research being done, so that we could use up to a 20 percent blend of ethanol which would nearly double the amount we would use, and that would be great for the farm economy.

Cooperatives like FS play a big role in the current energy crisis, because as Matt said “we are owned by our customers and those are the same customers that grow corn and can help produce ethanol and probably have an interest in trying to make sure that ethanol usage continues.” With farmers being the most supportive of using these fuels, they would be more likely to care about it versus another customer that doesn’t care as much about agriculture and therefore wouldn’t care what type of fuel they use. This is a perfect example of the full circle that American dollars would go in because the farmers are the ones growing the crops used to make the fuels, and if Americans are the ones buying the fuels, more of the U.S. money is staying in the United States and not leaving the country to buy as much foreign oil, which in turn would help our economy.

Homegrown fuels can and will save the nation’s oil supply and save you money, but it’s up to you to use them!