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| | | January 07, 2008
Morning Notes
Publisher: Michael A. Berry
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| | 1. FOOD: THE NEXT BIG DISCOVERY SPACE
If you have any doubt about the value of discovery you only need to examine the food space. The price of protein is skyrocketing as are grain prices. Prices for raw foods (agricultural products) rose 22% on average in 2007. US consumers are paying at least 6.0% more for their food than 1 year ago.
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| | December 13, 2007
Morning Notes
Publisher: Michael A. Berry
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| | 2. ALGAE: NANCY, SEND THE MONEY TO EL PASO
"Out in the West Texas Town of El Paso ..."
Marty Robbins
They are green and slimy and very prolific, doubling, under the right conditions every day. They are Algae. I am told there are 64,000 or more species. They produce oil, a lot of it. It is vegetable oil but it can be converted into diesel or other oils suitable for pharmaceutical products. Most important, they consume carbon dioxide and give off oxygen during their growth cycle. Al Gore must love these little critters.
I wrote last week of two DARPA (Government) sponsored conferences seeking new algae production discoveries. You see, ponds don't work very well because Algae needs sunlight to grow and pond grown algae are eventually deprived of sunlight. But out in the west Texas town of El Paso the sun shines almost daily and the land is, for the most part, beautiful, barren and cheap. I also wrote of House leader Nancy Pelosi, with arms raised, shouting that with the new energy bill (sure to be vetoed) we will now send our dollars to the mid west rather than the Middle East. She was referring to the production of ethanol.
Yesterday Valcent Products Inc. and Global Green Solutions jointly announced the results of internal tests on the yields from an innovative closed loop, Algae production process. Valcent has developed a process for growing and harvesting algae called Vertigro. It was developed at Valcent's labs in El Paso Texas by CEO Glen Kertz and Dr. Aga Pinowska. I have met them several times in El Paso and here in New York. The El Paso lab is state of the art. One Big Pharma group has called the lab facilities and the Vertigro production process one of the six best they have seen. The yields Valcent scientists announced are startling. I quote from the Valcent and Global Green press releases.
"The Vertigro Joint Venture has released initial test results from its high density bio mass (algae) field test bed plant located at its research and development facility in El Paso, Texas. During a 90 day continual production test, algae was being harvested at an average of one gram (dry weight) per liter. This equates to algae bio mass production of 276 tons of algae per acre per year. Achieving the same biomass production rate with an algal species having 50% lipids (oil) content would therefore deliver approximately 33,000 gallons of algae oil per acre per year.
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| | March 31, 2007
Dr. Berry's Discovery Investing Presentation
Publisher: Energy Security
Author: Michael A. Berry, Ph.D.
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| | Michael Berry has been a portfolio manager for both Heartland Advisors and Kemper Scudder where he successfully managed small and mid cap value portfolios. Dr. Berry has specialized in the study of behavioral strategies for investing and has been published in a number of academic and practitioner journals. His definitive work on earnings surprise, with David Dreman, was published in 1995 in the Financial Analysts Journal.
Previously, Dr. Berry was a professor of investments at the Colgate Darden Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia and has also held the Wheat First Endowed Chair at James Madison University .
Dr. Berry is a respected and dynamic speaker. He regularly presents around the world on topics such as value investing, the role of Austrian Economics in investment management, behavioral investing strategies and is a specialist in developing case studies to teach investors how to invest. While a professor, he published a case book, Managing Investments: A Case Approach.
He has also focused on the role of precious metals and energy exposure in the asset allocation of the individual and institutional investor.
Dr. Berry publishes Morning Notes by Michael Berry, Ph.D. daily. This publication is distributed to clients worldwide to identify current market opportunities and behavioral anomalies.
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| | March 05, 2007
Morning Notes
Author: Michael A. Berry, Ph.D.
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| | 1. Algae: From Bag to Jag
Last week I visited El Paso to observe progress that Valcent's industrial division (VCTPF OTCBB) and Global Green (GGRN OTCBB) have made on their joint algae bio reactor design and development. It was a successful meeting. This was my second visit since November. I was privileged to listen to a presentation from Mr. Glen Kertz, confer at length with Dr. Aga Pinowska, the companies' algae expert, and talk to others in the forum. Valcent's Industrial Division is using an advanced membrane technology to develop a photosynthetic bioreactor. The firm believes that this could produce biodiesel-compatible vegetable oil at the rate of 180,000 gallons (4,286 barrels) per acre per year...
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