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Biomass Crop Assistance Program


The Answer to Non-irrigated, Marginal Soil in Northeast Arkansas – Giant Miscanthus

April 09, 2012 Kent Politsch, Chief of Public Affairs, USDA Farm Service Agency

There’s a lot that a farmer can grow in northeast Arkansas. Most producers choose rice and cotton. Some plant soybeans, corn and sorghum; row crops, mostly, according to Charles Glover, manager, Ritter Agribusiness. Glover works with landowners, their tenants and producers who farm 40,000 acres...

Energy

Farmer Does as Teacher Says – All in One

March 29, 2012 Kent Politsch, Chief, FSA Public Affairs

If you teach it, you must live it. That is the wisdom Steven R. Kochemba adheres to. Kochemba is a science teacher and the athletic director for the Joseph Badger School District in Trumbull County north of Youngstown, Ohio. He’s also a farmer. Among his other science courses, Kochemba teaches 8 th...

Energy

BCAP: Consider It a Holliday Wish Come True

March 28, 2012 Tanya Brown, Farm Service Agency, Public Affairs Specialist

Chris Holliday has more pastureland than he needs for his cows—335 acres to be exact. So when USDA introduced a way to use that land to help create clean energy while reducing U.S. dependence on foreign oil, he saw it as an opportunity. “I thought it was a good idea and I had a good feeling about it...

Energy

The Energy Behind Alternative Energy

March 27, 2012 Tanya Brown, Farm Service Agency, Public Affairs Specialist

The Biomass Crop Assistance Program, or BCAP, is still in its infancy, but its potential success has producers and businesses wanting more. “We have people on a waiting list,” said Tim Wooldridge, Arkansas project manager with MFA Oil Biomass. MFA was selected by USDA to manage three of nine project...

Energy

Ohioans See Giganteus Future

March 22, 2012 Kent E. Politsch, Chief, Public Affairs Branch, USDA Farm Service Agency

Miscanthus giganteus was a tall, bothersome grass a few years back, a good privacy plant, but to some, just a weed. It could grow about anywhere, reaching heights of 12-15 feet, and do it perennially for 20 years or more. Some say Miscanthus giganteus had a bad reputation, but it doesn’t bother...

Conservation Animals Plants

More States Added to Biomass Production Program; 3,400 New Jobs Expected

August 01, 2011 Tanya Brown, Farm Service Agency

USDA recently named additional states that will participate in the Biomass Crop Assistance Program, designed to expand the availability of non-food crops to be used for liquid biofuels.

Energy Rural

Biomass Crop Assistance Program to Spur Renewable Energy Development, Job Creation, in Four States

June 15, 2011 Tanya Brown, Farm Service Agency

Four more states will be added to the list of project areas under a Farm Service Agency program that encourages producers to establish dedicated energy crops to be used for production of biofuels. Today’s announcement is expected to spark the creation of thousands of new jobs in future production...

Energy Rural

First BCAP Project Area Aims to Reduce American Dependence on Foreign Oil

May 06, 2011 Tanya Brown, Farm Service Agency

In an announcement released this week, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack established the first Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP) Project Area to promote the next generation of biofuels. The announcement comes as Americans are pinching pennies due to gas prices climbing to over $4 a gallon....

Energy Rural

Boosting Advanced Biofuel Production and Creating Jobs

October 22, 2010 Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack

Cross-posted from the White House blog. Our country needs a strong, vibrant rural economy. Advanced biofuel production will help create it. Not only will biofuel production from non-food sources create new jobs and new streams of farm income, it will improve environmental quality and reduce our...

Energy

Biomass and Biofuel – What’s in it for Hawaii’s Agriculture?

June 25, 2010 Diane Ley, State Executive Director, USDA Farm Service Agency

Hawaii and the Pacific Basin The dwindling global supply of fossil fuels and the resulting escalation in prices has set the stage for entry of commercial biofuel produced from biomass, including co-products and bi-products. This transition in the energy sector’s feed stocks offers Hawaii a unique...

Energy
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