1780 – The Official Blog of Transylvania University

1780 | The Official Blog of Transylvania University

The competition for food, feed, and fuel – Will we be able to feed ourselves and our animals in 10 years?

LEXINGTON, Ky.—If you buy meat, eggs, milk or cheese, start pinching pennies. Prices for these products and more are likely to skyrocket over the next 10 years as corn—a staple in most animal diets, especially cattle and chicken—is diverted to ethanol production.

Pearce Lyons, president and founder of Alltech, will give a public lecture Tuesday, February 6, at 7:30 p.m. in Haggin Auditorium. His talk is the first in the new Alltech Lecture Series at Transylvania. The series will focus on how science affects our everyday lives.

Corn prices recently soared to a 10-year high in the U.S., and experts are concerned about the available supply of corn for feed and food. While corn-fed ethanol is driving an economic boom around the world, it is using a large share of the corn supply.

At this lecture, Lyons will discuss how predicted grain shortages may change the ways we feed ourselves and our animals.

Lyons received his B.S. from the National University of Ireland in Dublin and his M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Birmingham. He has authored over 20 books and was recognized as one of the top 15 Irish-American life scientists of the year by Biolink USA-Ireland. Lyons founded Alltech in 1980. Headquartered in Nicholasville, Kentucky, Alltech is one of the world’s top animal health companies, boasting group sales of $300 million and employing over 1,800 people in 85 countries. Alltech was named one of the 100 fastest growing high tech companies by World Trade magazine.

For more information, call the Transylvania public relations office at (859) 233-8120.