There was a time when the main topic of conversation at the farmers' favorite breakfast or lunch place was the weather, and, if everyone was agreeable with the topic, the current state of government affairs. Now, it's all about fuel costs And it's certainly not as if there is little else of importance occurring in agriculture. In the past few months alone, the United States' chief negotiator in World Trade Organization talks has suggested eliminating all U.S. farm subsidies.
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And, closer to home, Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns has been crisscrossing the country, conducting a number of farm bill “listening” sessions. How much listening is actually going on at these sessions is debatable, as the Secretary always reveals in his closing statement that the die pretty much is already cast as far as how world trade will dictate the direction of the next farm bill.

But these are things that will affect farmers in the future, although the not-too-distant future. Fuel bills are in the here and now — they're in the hands of growers, they have to be paid, and they're shockingly high. What's more, we're being told that fuel costs will only get higher, and that there's no relief in sight.

So it's time we began taking a serious look at long-term solutions to the current fuel crisis, and that was part of the purpose of the recent Alabama Agriculture Energy Conference, held at Auburn University.

The message brought by Alabama Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks was that the solutions to our fuel problems are readily available — it's just a matter of taking advantage of them. Alabama, he said, is a potential treasure trove of biofuels, and it's past time for the state's economy — particularly the farm sector — started profiting from them.

“The technology is there,” says Sparks. “But there has got to be a commitment by farmers, the government and consumers for all of this to work.”

Education, he adds, is key to the success of biofuels. Farmers need to know what's available, where the opportunities lie, and what's still needed.

One thing that is not lacking, however, are the raw materials, with many of the products commonly used to produce biofuels already being grown in abundance throughout Alabama.

For example, in the course of producing 1 billion chickens each year, 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.

Alabama also is well known for its prolific produc... [ Read More (0.2k in body) ]