Friday, August 28, 2009

By Susan Burgess

Bright yellow sunflowers or the emerald green of algae mats growing in the agricultural areas of the Treasure Coast alongside groves of oranges and grapefruit or between plantings of vegetables might also provide growers with much-needed income. This is while they battle citrus tree diseases that are killing off groves throughout the state.

About 70 growers and business owners turned out Thursday to hear from experts how non-food crops can be grown and turned into fuel for vehicles. The workshop was hosted by the St. Lucie County Extension office at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Station Horticultural Research Laboratory on Rock Road.

“Growers are looking at alternative crops to make use of our lost citrus land,” Richard Borland, general manager of Becker Groves in Fort Pierce, said afterward “As disease takes citrus out, we’re looking for ways to make the land viable. It’s all interesting, but they’ve got a lot of bugs to work out. But, that’s why we have this lab and all the research they do here.”

The concept of growing non-food crops for fuel is an idea whose time has come, said Dr. Randall von Wedel, a consultant from CytoCulture International Inc. of California.

“There is already a demand for biodiesel fuel, which we define as a fuel made from a variety of vegetable oils and animal fats,” he said. “The idea is to get farmers behind it before they stop growing crops on their land because it is much harder to do it if the land has not been in use for a long time.”

If growers and farmers keep using their land for agricultural purposes, the land can continue to be taxed at agricultural rates, von Wedel said.

Pete McClure, manager of Evans Properties of Vero Beach, said he was there to learn about the potential of energy crops for growers.

“We’ve got to start someplace,” he said. “We need to work toward this because fossil fuels won’t last forever. None of these crops are economically viable now, but hopefully we can make this work in the future. If you think about it, what we are doing today is burning algae in another form, but we had the advantage of a hundred million years for nature to create it. Now we have to create it in a short time.”

Sunflowers, mats of algae grown in ponds and the jatropha tree can all be sources of biofuel, the experts said. Sunflower and jatropha fruit seeds can be crushed and the extracted oil can be used as fuel for cars and trucks.

Dan Chellemi, a plant pathologist from Homestead, said sunflowers produce about 93 gallons of oil per acre and can be planted twice a year. But, ways still have to be found to keep the oil from oxidizing once it has been produced.

“I view sunflowers as a transitional crop,” he said. “They can be used to get growers over the rough hump in the road, so if they want to return to citrus later, they can do that.”

© 2009 The E.W. Scripps Co.