Ethanol May Replace Citrus As Florida Cash Crop
I have been a farm reporter all of my professional broadcasting career, half of that time in Florida and half in the midwest. For the past four years I have been reporting farm news for Florida FROM the Midwest – thanks to the magic of the internet and computers – on the Southeast Agnet radio network. One of the stories I did today was about a meeting that Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Charles Bronson will be holding Thursday afternoon on the state’s potential to create bio-fuels from farm crops. Part of the reason for the meeting is the fact that, in the wake of five major hurricanes hitting the citrus belt in the last two years, the state has decided it is no longer feasible to eradicate citrus canker. The disease is harmless to humans, but causes blemishes on fruit and production declines – which will likely lead to an end to the fresh citrus business in Florida. While most of Florida’s citrus is made into juice, there is a significant amount of fresh fruit grown – and there’s just no market for ugly citrus. SOOOO – there’s alot of talk now about converting those citrus groves into energy crops, and some domestic fuel companies are already jumping on the bandwagon (see previous post).
Here is a link to my Southeast Agnet report with Commissioner Bronson, and stay tuned for more about the industry developing in the Sunshine State.
2 Comments
C. Scott Miller
I think the citrus growers should continue growing citrus instead of switchng to corn. Instead of building sugar fermentation plants in the state, they should build syngas fermentation plants producing cellulosic ethanol from agricultural waste. Good crops – sell the citrus. Bad crops – sell the waste to be produced into cellulosic ethanol. It would get rid of the waste at a profit and co-generate electricity to boot using emission-free technology like BRI Energy’s (which has their headquarter office in New Smyrna, FL).
DomesticFuel » From Florida Farms to Fuel
[...] The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services is really getting serious about making the Sunshine State a leader in domestic fuel production. Earlier this month, Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson held a meeting in Tallahassee with more than 50 agricultural producers, researchers and those already in the business of producing commercial fuel-grade ethanol and bio-diesel crops. (see previous post) As a result, Charlie got pretty fired up and will be working with Governor Bush and the Florida Legislature, Florida’s Congressional Delegation, and colleagues from other states to develop and implement strategies to assist farmers and producers of bio-fuels in Florida, according to the FDACS website. Check out the Farm to Fuel page on the website – lots of pretty powerpoint presentations there. [...]
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