Wooster, Ohio-The Fund for Our Economic Future has awarded a $250,000 grant to the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center for research into the potential for farmers in northeast Ohio to grow crops, not just for consumption, but also for producing alternative energy. Chris Thompson, director of marketing and communications for the Fund, explained that the object is to find what can be done to shift commodity agriculture to more specialty or value-added agriculture – or more specifically, locally-grown foods to growing crops for biomass. Thompson said there are several individuals doing research on such crops as Russian dandelions, which produce latex that can be used in natural rubber, and the jatropha plant, which has nuts that produce larger amounts of oils that can be used in ethanol. Part of the grant will be used to tie those efforts together.
Transparency Across the Fertilizer Value-Chain