"The main thing that we all have to be aware of is the complexity of the feed, food and fuel interaction, and how policy and research have to be conducted in a very conscientious fashion, or we are going to have ourselves out of balance," said John M. Bonner, director of a the Ames-based Council for Agricultural Science and Technology, or CAST.

The international consortium of 38 scientific and professional societies released a paper on Tuesday titled "Convergence of Agriculture and Energy: Implications for Research and Policy."

One major area of research should focus on rapidly boosting corn yields while protecting the environment, said Kenneth G. Cassman, the director of the Nebraska Center for Energy Sciences at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and a co-author of the report.

"It's the core issue to ensuring that we don't come up short in food supply, and don't have high consumer prices, and can still maintain expansion of the ethanol industry," Cassman said, adding that many key issues are not being studied under current government programs.

Since January 2001, the paper says U.S. ethanol production capacity has had "tremendous growth," climbing from 1.7 billion gallons to 4.8 billion gallons in June 2006. It adds that "some in the corn industry believe it will be possible to produce 16 billion gallons of ethanol by 2015 while also meeting corn grain requirements for human food and livestock feed."

But Bonner said that in some areas, including northwestern Iowa, the ethanol industry is already using up much of the available corn. In turn, that can pressure the livestock industry.

"It puts quite a strain on the livestock industry ... because of the amounts they can use and the sensitivity to corn price," he said.

A byproduct of ethanol production, called distiller's grains, can be used as feed, but experts say it isn't the best source of food for some livestock including poultry and swine.

The paper examines a number of other issues including how much ethanol is needed by U.S. consumers, how to use corn byproducts to make the fuel, the impact of ethanol production on the economy and the environment, and how to foster other biofuels production.

"We have abruptly entered a new era for agriculture that no one predicted," Cassman said. "That is an era where the value of agriculture and its commodities are being determined more by the price of energy than by the value of commodities for food or feedstock."

Lester Brown, founder of the Earth Policy Institute, a Washington-based think tank, is a vocal critic of ethanol production, and argues that it is not an answer to the nation's energy needs.

He said many of the poorest countries around the world that use corn as a food staple will have to compete for supplies gobbled up by ethanol production. They'll also pay more because of increases in corn prices, which he said have climbed 40% higher than they were earlier this year.

For U.S. consumers, Brown said the price of animal products — including meat, eggs, cheese and dairy products — will increase if livestock operations have to pay more for feed.

"We used to have a food economy and an energy economy. Now you can't draw a line between them anymore," Brown said.

Matt Hartwig, a spokesman for the Renewable Fuels Association, which represents ethanol producers, said the industry is very aware of the food versus fuel debate, "but believe it is a false choice."

"American farmers can and will do both," he said. "There is a lot of room for growth in the corn-to-ethanol industry, as the National Corn Growers have pointed out."

Hartwig said private and public investment in the industry to produce cellulosic ethanol — or transform organic matter including plant waste into ethanol — will come to fruition.

"We will be talking about a much bigger ethanol industry than 15 billion gallons a year," he said.

Cassman said if the proper research is conducted, both the ethanol and agriculture industries can continue to prosper.

"If we were to respond accordingly, we could avoid most of the concerns," he said.

CAST's ethanol paper was scheduled to be presented Tuesday in Indianapolis at the joint annual meetings of the American Society of Agronomy, the Crop Science Society of America, and the Soil Science Society of America.

CAST: http://www.cast-science.org/cast/src/cast_top.htm

Earth Policy Institute: http://www.earth-policy.org

Renewable Fuels Association: http://www.ethanolrfa.org/