Expert: Alternative Energy a Big Factor in Fisheries’ Future

Dr. Jesse Chappell proudly and readily attests to the explosive growth of Alabama fisheries production within the last few decades.

But he’s a realist, too. And like every other realist in his industry, Chappell understands that fisheries, despite their phenomenal success, simply can’t afford to rest on their laurels. In fact, fisheries are no more immune to the effects of foreign competition than any other facet of agriculture — row crops, poultry, or beef production.

“If we keep doing the same thing over and over again and expect the same outcome, well, that’s just silly,” Chappell says.

It’s also potentially disastrous, he says, because without steady innovation, stagnation follows — and with it, a steady erosion of the industry’s competitive advantage against rising economic giants in Asia, Latin America and elsewhere.

Part of this will involve finding creative ways to offset these advantages.

“Right now, our farmers are in a competitive environment like they’ve never seen before,” Chappell says.

“They can’t do what they’ve been doing in the past and still compete. They’re going to have to change their production strategy in terms of remaining competitive over the long term.”

Climate is a good example. Vietnam, Thailand, southern China, Brazil and other tropical countries enjoy year-round growing conditions — a distinct advantage over growers in temperate Alabama.

“We can’t just sit here in a temperate climate when we have only a five-month growing season for tilapia or other fish and foreign growers can raise them all year round.”

The obvious solution for Alabama growers is to expand their production window — to develop a cost-effective method for raising fish throughout the year.

Needless to say, Chappell says, this has called for some creative thinking — not unlike what poultry producers faced roughly a half century ago when it became readily apparent to them that poultry would have to be raised inside, in thermally controlled environments.

Containing feed costs — ensuring that the fish post maximum growth rates on the cheapest possible feeding regimen — is a critical factor in helping Alabama growers stay competitive. Chappell estimates it accounts for about 50 percent of total costs.

Also critical in an era of spiking fuel costs is getting a handle on energy costs. But the question is how?

This concern prompted Chappell and other Auburn researchers to consider other alternative sources of energy that, at least potentially, were substantially cheaper than more conventional sources — the electric power grid and LP gas.

They settled on corn power — one in which a burner for heating the house is run off corn kernels.

Chappell says this approach offers growers several distinct advantages. In addition to being a renewable energy source, it’s also versatile.

Right now, Chappell is spending more than $4 per bushel for the corn to run the burners that are heating the two demonstration greenhouses on the Auburn University campus. But that’s only because he doesn’t have the wherewithal to grow the corn on his own. On the other hand, many farmers do — and that’s the beauty of using corn as the alternative energy source.

He estimates that with only 7 acres, producers conceivably could raise enough corn to heat five greenhouses, which could be used to grow not only fish, but also other potentially lucrative sources of income.

In fact, as part of his demonstration, Chappell has not restricted his project to raising fish — in this case, tilapia. In the adjacent greenhouse, researchers with Auburn University’s Department of Horticulture also are culturing two varieties of tomatoes and leatherleaf ferns using the same corn-fired burner as the heating source. Funding for the project, sponsored by the Alabama Cooperative Extension System and the Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station, was provided by the Alabama Department of Community and Economic Affairs and Auburn University’s Black Belt Initiative.

Even so, the energy source doesn’t have to be limited to corn. Chappell says wood pellets, switchgrass and biodiesel by-products — all of which Alabama has or likely will have in abundance in the foreseeable future — could serve equally as well.

He believes the approach could prove highly profitable for small-scale growers, particularly in western Alabama, who are interested in slashing operating costs and supplementing their fisheries operations with other sources of income.

“What I’m doing out there in the greenhouses can be done by anybody in Alabama today,” Chappell says.

But this is only the beginning. Chappell says he’s visited larger facilities where between 800,000 and one million pounds of tilapia per acre are raised in houses that conceivably could be heated with alternative energy sources.

Whatever the case, Chappell says some type of this operation ultimately will prevail in Alabama. As far as he’s concerned, it’s a matter of necessity.

“Our production costs have to come down,” he says, and he’s convinced alternative energy will play a big factor in this effort.

Posted by Jim Langcuster at March 20, 2007 04:24 PM | TrackBack