SMU Law Professor/LSGI Fund Manager Tells World Affairs Council: Global Food and Energy Crises Present Challenges, Investment Opportunities

The Dallas/Fort Worth chapter of the World Affairs Council examined “The Global Food Crisis” where they examined challenges governments and businesses face in meeting growing global food demand.

Joseph R. Dancy, Adjunct Professor of Law at Southern Methodist University and Fund Manager with LSGI Venture Fund, delivered initial remarks on the topic. Dancy said, “Just over a year ago we saw food riots in over a dozen countries as food prices escalated. Even grocery stores in the U.S. limited the amount of rice you could buy.

“Corn yields have more than tripled in the last 50 years, but we use 30 times as much energy to produce that corn than we did mid-century. And roughly one-quarter of the U.S. corn crop has been used for alternative fuel production.”

Dancy continued, “Moving forward we will have to allocate more capital to both the agricultural and energy sectors on a global basis. Economic and population growth are pushing demand upward, and agriculture has become very energy-intensive.

“Drilling advances focusing on unconventional energy reserves has the potential to revolutionize domestic natural gas and crude oil production and ultimate resource recoveries, which could help moderate costs in the energy intensive agricultural sector. But we still face interesting challenges,” concluded Dancy.

In addition to teaching at SMU, Dancy manages the LSGI Technology Venture Fund L.P.

The LSGI Technology Venture Fund L.P. invests in small public firms in the energy and agricultural sector, including Art’s Way Manufacturing (NASDAQ: ARTW), GeoResources Inc. (NASDAQ: GEOI), and Crimson Exploration Inc. (NASDAQ: CXPO).

LSGI Fund research and interviews on trends in the agricultural and energy sectors can be found at the LSGI website: http://lsgifund.com/

LSGI Advisors Inc. also announced it awarded the 2009-2010 LSGI Mentoring Work-Study grants to Ed Drouillard and Eric Tangko, seniors majoring in Finance at Michigan Technological University. The LSGI grant is awarded to students who display excellent academic achievement and demonstrate high moral and ethical characteristics.

More details can be found at the LSGI website: http://lsgifund.com/

About LSGI Advisors:

LSGI Advisors Inc. manages the LSGI Venture Fund L.P., a Texas limited partnership. For more information please visit: http://lsgifund.com/