AGRICULTURE SECRETARY GLICKMAN TO VISIT IOWA BIOMASS ENERGY PROJECT


                                              Release No. 0335.97

Media Advisory                
                                           
                                      
                                                               
                                     Tom Amontree (202)720-4623
                                   Tamontree@usda.gov


AGRICULTURE SECRETARY GLICKMAN TO VISIT IOWA BIOMASS ENERGY PROJECT

     WASHINGTON, Sept. 30, 1997--Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman will
tour a major biomass energy project in southern Iowa on Friday.

     At noon, on Friday, Oct. 3, Glickman, Senator Tom Harkin,
Representative Leonard Boswell, and other federal and state officials will
visit the project on the Loren Eddy farmstead near Centerville, Iowa.  The
Eddy farmstead is located one mile north of Centerville on Highway 5 to St.
Joseph's Drive (watch for sign to St. Joseph's Mercy Hospital) then 1.6
miles to the farm.

     The project involves growing switchgrass as an energy
crop to be co-fired with coal to produce electricity for the community.     

     Other officials participating are: Henry Kelly of the White House
Office of Science and Technology Policy; a representative from the
Department of Energy; and officials from Iowa State University, the Iowa
Department of Natural Resources, IES Utilities, John Deere, Iowa
Environmental Council, Iowa Farm Bureau, and the Chariton Valley Resource
Conservation and Development Area.


                         
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