In our 24-hour news cycle, hype sells. In our opinion, that's what you got last week, when listening to the reporting on biofuels and their carbon footprint.

What did they leave out?

1. People need soybeans for other purposes. Soybean meal is a highly prized animal feed. What is used for biodiesel, in most cases, is actually just a high-priced byproduct. People don't plant soybeans just for biodiesel. Therefore, even for those acres, that by-product nature must be considered.

2. No mention of waste product biodiesel. Beef. Chicken. Pork. Waste Veggie. These are true, sustainable sources of biodiesel feedstock. You wouldn't know if from the coverage.

3. Carbon is emitted all the time. That's natural. It's sequestered and released every moment. What we have done that is unnatural is to upset the equation by going back millions of years and releasing carbon that the earth was not expecting. But releasing carbon from "current" sources is a natural process and is quite different than from fossil fuels. No one seems to make that connection.

Now, our company and our associates have been carrying the sustainable biofuels banner for longer than Brian Williams could pronounce the words. We are all for responsible use of land, and that is possible. Anyone cutting down rainforest for any purpose is cruisin' for a bruisin' with us. But to somehow throw out less than half of the story and call it a breakthrough, brother, that just ain't right.