OFFICIALS MOVE TO BOOST PRODUCTION OF BIOFUELS — The Obama administration hopes to create green jobs and cut US reliance on foreign oil. On Wednesday they announced a push to boost the production of biofuels, which could increase annual farm income by $13 billion and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told reporters Wednesday that biofuels production could create “thousands of green jobs in all regions of the country.”

Meeting with members of his cabinet and governors from across the country, President Barack Obama said reaching the goal of 36 billion gallons of biofuels a year “will decrease our dependence on foreign oil by hundreds of millions of barrels per year.”

COMPARATIVE EFFECTIVENESS AND HEALTH CARE SPENDING IMPLICATIONS FOR REFORM — An article in The New England Journal of Medicine discusses whether comparative effectiveness analysis, or the assessment of the added improvement in health outcomes relative to cost, should be used to examine the US health care policy.

Title VIII of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 authorizes the expenditure of $1.1 billion to conduct research comparing “clinical outcomes, effectiveness, and appropriateness of items, services, and procedures that are used to prevent, diagnose, or treat diseases, disorders, and other health conditions.” Federal support of “comparative effectiveness” research has been viewed as a cornerstone in controlling runaway health care costs.

US EPA SLASHES CELLULOSIC ETHANOL TARGET FOR 2010 – The Obama administration cut the 2010 US cellulosic ethanol mandate by 94 percent, according to Bloomberg.com.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reduced the nation’s cellulosic goal to 6.5 million gallons from the 100 million required under a 2007 energy law. The rule issued today found that corn-based ethanol produces lower greenhouse gases emissions than were anticipated in a May proposal, clearing the way for more use of the fuel.

“This is at its root an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson said in a White House conference call. “The numbers we used in the proposal were not right.”

A GENETICALLY MODIFIED FUTURE — In the past 13 years genetically modified seeds have shifted to become the norm in the US, and that is not expected to change.

The number and variety of genetically modified seeds are expected to quadruple in five years.

“There are currently about 30 seeds available, manufactured by corporations,” said Pamela Ronald, professor of plant pathology at the University of California at Davis.  “In five years, there will be approximately 120 seeds, half of which will come from Asia and Latin America.”