Renewable energy in agriculture industry:Biofuels

 As people become more and more involved in creating sustainable methods of production across all industries the amount of research and viability of renewable energy sources has been on the rise. Many companies are looking for renewable energy sources from the sun, wind, hydroelectric, and geothermal sources to provide energy. The agriculture industry is no different. Many, especially larger, agricultural firms are looking into more sustainable ways to fuel their farms. One solution that many farmers are considering is using biofuels to run their machinery. Although, it is a larger investment in the short-term to buy equipment that is compatible with the fuels, the long-term benefits have been proven. Biofuels will help the economy in two main ways, one is job production. Biofuels will spur local employment; By 2004 the ethanol industry had created more than 147,000 jobs. Second, biofuels have become viable substitutes for fossil fuels. Once we can replace fossil fuels with biofuels not only are we able to reduce our CO2 emmissions but we can reduce the price and instability of our fuel sources.

          This graph shows the U.S. Biofuels Plan. Each color represents a type of biofuel. The

          dark green color represents ethonal products.  Biomass-based diesel would be the type

          primarily used by farmers. As you can see the U.S. plans to increase the amount of

          biofuels consumes to over 35billion gallons in 2022.

 For More material on the Renewable Energy and Sustainable Agriculture Symposium:

http://www.sare.org/Learning-Center/Conference-Materials/Renewable-Energy-and-Sustainable-Agriculture-Symposium

Sources:
Werner, Carol. "Renewable Energy and Sustainable Agriculture Symposium." / Conference Materials / Learning
             Center /SARE Nationwide. Environmental and Energy Studies Institute, n.d. Web. 17 Dec. 2012.
Picture Sources:
"The Resilient Earth." Killing Biofuels. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Dec. 2012.