Sparks: Alabama Farmers Must Capitalize on Biofuel Opportunities

Alabama is a potential treasure trove of biofuels, and it’s high time the state’s economy --- particularly the farm sector --- started profiting from them, according to Agriculture and Industries Commissioner Ron Sparks.

The good news, he said, is that Alabama already has taken several bold steps toward developing a biofuels sector. Even so, challenges remain.

“The technology is there,” Sparks said, speaking at the annual Alabama Agriculture Energy Conference, held today at the Auburn University Hotel and Dixon Conference Center. “But there’s got to be a commitment by farmers, government and consumers for all of this to work.”

Sparks cited education as another key factor.

“We’ve got to come together so we’ll know where the opportunities lie --- what’s available and what’s still needed.”

One thing that is not lacking is raw materials. Indeed, many of the products commonly used to make biofuels already are found in abundance throughout the state.

In the course of producing a billion chickens a year, for example, the state’s poultry farmers also generate an enormous supply of poultry waste, which many biofuel experts believe could ultimately serve as a cheap, widely available biofuel source.

The state also abounds in timber --- a product that provides roughly 48 percent of all renewable biomass used throughout the world. Alabama is comprised of more than 22 million acres of forestland and ranks second in forestry production.

Row crops are another potentially lucrative resource in terms of biofuel production. Sparks cited the more than 590,000 acres of cotton, 170,000 acres of soybeans and 200,000 acres of corn grown in the state --- all of which produce by-products that can be converted into biofuels.

“What does this say? It says to me that we have the products in Alabama to produce alternative fuels in abundance,” Sparks says.

It’s not only an opportunity but one that Alabama farmers simply can’t afford to pass up, he says.

In an era of increasing competition from other rising agricultural powers, such as China and Brazil, Sparks says Alabama farmers must begin exploring other sources of income.

“I don’t want other countries feeding us in the same way that they’re putting gas in our vehicles,” Sparks says. “But I see us heading down that path if we don’t have a change of mindset.”

Much of this change of mindset, he says, will require Alabama farmers to become comfortable using and producing biofuel resources.

Posted by Jim Langcuster at November 9, 2005 05:46 PM | TrackBack