UD's Harker: energy; AG Biden: sex crimes; SPCA's Moore: dogs
High-flying grain prices might put smiles on the faces of Sussex County grain farmers but $7 corn and $11 beans are putting a strain on Delmarva poultry operations and world food prices.
University of Delaware President Pat Harker is a firm believer in biotechnology and using biomass to create alternatives to petroleum products, but he has no time for 40 percent of the nation's corn being converted into ethanol as a gasoline supplement. He said ethanol production is running up food prices around the world.
“People think that the uprisings in northern Africa and the Middle East are based largely on abuse of freedoms and religious differences," he told a Lewes-Rehoboth Rotary Club audience Monday night. "But the biggest part of the problem is rising food costs. There's not much that will make people take to the streets, but when they can't feed their families, they will rise up and protest."
Harker said shifting away from using corn to make fuel would take a lot of pressure off of rising food prices. University of Delaware, he said, is investing in its biotechnology research and education to play a major role in the nation's shift toward use of biomass - such as switchgrass and trash - to generate oils for energy. He said agriculture will continue to play a major role in Delaware's economy - particularly in Sussex County, which has the greatest share of the state's farmland.
Harker said the university's purchase of the former Chrysler production property adjacent to the Newark campus will allow development of the partnership with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, a scientific arm of the Department of Energy. One of the Richland, Washington laboratory's principal focuses is on the development of alternative fuels through use of biomass as a natural resource. He said development of that former Chrysler land will also provide space for creation of an extensive physician's assistant program in cooperation with Jefferson College of Medicine. "That will eventually help ease the critical shortage of primary care physicians in Delaware," said Harker.
In the meantime, demolition of the former Chrysler assembly plant is making money for the university. Harker said the Chrysler buildings are worth more to the university for their salvage value than they are as standing structures. "There are 20 miles of copper pipe alone in the buildings," said Harker.
Biden on predators, foreclosures
Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden made a swing through Sussex this week. During an interview in the Gazette offices, Biden said he feels like there's a rash of child pornography and pedophilia cases in Sussex County and southern Delaware. "I know that all the attention on this subject because of the Bradley case has created a bright light that emboldens and empowers people to speak out, but I still feel that there's more of that type of activity down here than I would expect."
Biden said internet investigation technology is enabling the state to pinpoint houses throughout the state where people are sharing child pornography between their computers and the computers of other people who want child pornography. "There are more of these cases than we have resources to investigate," said Biden.
He noted that the office his department set up in Lewes, at the corner of Fourth and Savannah, to assist in the Bradley investigation continues to be staffed. "It's a place where people know they can go to begin sorting through their concerns and begin to heal. We stood it up and continue to keep it standing."
He said he's also vitally concerned about the rate of home foreclosures in Delaware. He said he is working in conjunction with attorneys general in many different states to go after the problem of the fraudulent signing of affidavits that led to people getting loans that eventually got them in trouble.
"There's also the problem of people's mortgages being sold by banks over and over again so that now no one really knows who owns what. We've had 22,000 foreclosures in Delaware since 2007 and we expect another 6,000 more this year. They are hitting straight-up middle class people and it's really hurting our economy, in Delaware and nationally. Getting this foreclosure situation under control is the road we have to take to get out of this ditch economically.
Alex Moore loves the animals
Kent County SPCA Board President Alex Moore stopped by with Executive Director Murrey Goldthwaite this week to defend the organization against critics who want to paint his group as kill-happy. Kent County SPCA has contracts in New Castle, Kent and Sussex to handle animal control which most of the time means dogs and cats. Goldthwaite said there are probably 42,000 dogs in Sussex County and another 100,000 cats. He said across the state, there's a phone call every four minutes seeking some kind of animal control.
"We have funds for handling dog control and that job's getting done," said Moore, a Lewes resident. "The problem is we don't have enough funds for spaying and neutering. People are getting stirred up for the wrong thing. Until we control animal populations, we're going to have this kill vs. no-kill problem. We're for every shelter in Delaware and we want to be a no-kill operation too. But there's a whole process that we, as a society have to go through to get from kill to no-kill, and doing more spaying and neutering is a big part of that process."
