when usda issued the final bcap rule they said, quote, bcap will address a classic chicken and egg challenge. if commercial scale biomass facilities are to have sufficient feed stocks, then an established large-scale energy crop source must exist. conversely, if profitable crop production is to occur, then a viable consumer base must exist to purchase the product, end quote. in our experience this could not ring truer. it is a difficult process to educate farmers on a strange new plant. just two years ago it was a crop that was too expensive and planted by hand. usda's approval in 2011 to fund our project was our window of opportunity. it allowed us to leverage other resources to develop a four-row planter, prop ratergation efforts and to that end bcap was essential in bridging the gap to our producers to take that leap of faith. to date, 225 family farmers have dedicated acres to the new energy crop, and we anticipate this number will grow to over 2,000 as our combined projects scale up to maturity at 50,000 acres per region. all of this is occurring on land that had been underutilized or w

programs such as the biomass crop assistance programs, better known as bcap, were developed to foster the creation of the next generation of advance ed this program has received over $900 million in appropriations. i think it's fair for this subcommittee to ask whether or not this program has achieved its purpose, whether or not it needs to be altered in some ways and if there are new sources of biomass established for energy production as a result of this program. other programs like the rural energy for america program, commonly known as reap were expanded to assist small businesses to implement energy efficiency measures and renewable energy systems. we should be certain that farm bill energy programs do not favor one region over another and that the programs are operating as congress intended. i should note that the last two farm bills were written during more favorable budgetary times than the situation we find ourselves in today with the biofuels. federal deficit and the increasing national debt. indeed 37 programs in the farm bill do not have a budget baseline beyond its expira

. >> thank you for the opportunity to testify on the entitlement program, the bio -- bcap it's called. >> in 2008 we began writing the next chapter, biomass. in 2011 betook a major step forward to form mfa biomass, with the mission of leading the cooperative into this new renewable energy field. for more information about our innovation, please refer to my written testimony. when usda issued the final bcap rule they said, quote, b-cap will address a classic chicken-and-egg challenge. if they're to have sufficient feed stocks established -- [ no audio ] . >> it allowed to us leverage other resources to develop a four-row planter, plant propagation acres and lower the cost of planting. to that end b-cap was essential to bridging the gap with our producers to take that leap of faith. today 225 family farmers have dedicated acres to the new energy crop and we anticipate this number will grow to over 2,000 as our combined projects scale up to maturity at 50,000 acres per region. all of this is occurring on land that had been underutilized or was earning very little. no other federal progra

we also don't faefr any favor that would allow for the manipulation of ex -- bcap is a prime example of a well intentioned program gone aright. it experienced nothing but major market disruptions and extra paperwork. there was no new facilities or markets developed as a result of the bcap program temperature pfs a disaster for our business and other businesses in the timber harvesting community. the last program i would like to address is the biobased markets program. we would like to sees language in the 2012 farm bill that would create parity by inserting language that would focus on products that apply apply regardless i entry into the marketplace. i'm currently working on a pilotel not plan. they will take waste water and using this to produce and. the company saw a need, realized what it took to explain the needs. i'll be happy to answer any questions you might have. >> thank you, mr. schwab. now i represent mr. goergen for five minutes of testimony. >> thank you very much. i'm the society of american foresters chief executive officer and executive vice president. i really appre