As the debates on how to best facilitate the United States’ independence from foreign fuel sources heats up, a resurgence of the industry that helped build this country may be the catalyst to the newest generation of renewable alternative energy. Farming. Specifically, farming plants that are used in the production of fuels to take the place of gasoline. Biofuels is the general term used for fuels derived from plant sources. Specifically, a biodiesel an alternative fuel produced from soy and ethanol is a grain-based alcohol derived from corn. This advent of technology is thereby creating the need for additional farming communities as well as processing plants for converting the natural raw materials into usable fuel. For example, alternative liquid fuels used in an increasing number of cars and trucks can be extracted from switchgrass, corn, cornstalks, sugar beets or sugarcane. These crops can then be planted with the intended end use being fuel, thereby being known as “energy crops”.

Other biofuels are being developed using the waste products of other energy sources. Cattle manure, for example, is a very rich source of potential energy. Since the excrement from cattle still contains 66% of the original components of the originally ingested food grain, current research is focused on developing similar fuel sources which recycle cow manure as a raw material.

Ironically, as the United States continues to strive to advance the research, development and use of alternative and renewable fuel sources to reduce the impact of fuel uses on the environment, the biofuel industry is hostage to the weather and climate patterns which are dramatically impacted by continued global warming. Currently, the biofuel industry is suffering because of the severe weather conditions which are affecting crop production. Hopefully, the efforts to reverse the greenhouse effect of pollution emissions in the atmostphere will eventually aid in relieving the weather related plight of the American farmer. Unfortunately, the resolution will not come in a reasonable amount of time to benefit the producer or consumer.

The logical solution to the environmental problems the biofuel energy crop farmers are facing may be in the production of large scale greenhouses where climate control can be more easily managed. Government subsidized farmland is a perfect opportunity to expand the necessity for mass greenhouses, by use of commercial grants and pre-orders for energy output from utility companies.

Opponents of the bio-fuel farm crop system are not necessarily opposed to the idea of plant use in production of alternative fuels, but rather are concerned with the ratio of energy used to produce the crop and energy extracted from the crop. Studies are being conducted to gauge the relative productivity levels of one crop to another. For example, the process of growing and cultivating soybeans for production of bio-diesel is much less labor intensive than the growing and production of ethanol from corn. Therefore, bio-diesel may be a more sustainable energy source than ethanol. Research and development is also being conducted to simplify the refining processes of plant based fuels to balance the production cost with the energy output for more profitable results.