Agri chief says state should concentrate on biodiesel
LITTLE ROCK - The state should concentrate on biodiesel in developing alternative fuels because other states have a big lead in producing ethanol, state Agriculture Secretary Richard Bell said Wednesday.
Bell told the House Agriculture, Forestry and Economic Development Committee that Arkansas will have a chance to break into the ethanol market later, when technology is developed to allow the gasoline substitute to be made from wood products. For now, most ethanol made in the United States comes from corn.
State Forester John Shannon agreed with Bell, telling the committee that producing ethanol from wood products would first require “a lot of very expensive research.”
Commercially viable biodiesel is made from soybeans, which are grown in abundance in Arkansas.
Farm commodities such as soybeans and corn are demanding good prices because of interest in alternative fuels, good news for farmers but bad for ranchers and the poultry industry, which are seeing their feed prices go up, Bell said. As much as 20 percent of the U.S. corn crop is going to ethanol, Bell said.
An increase in U.S. corn acreage is likely in the spring, Bell said. The relative shortage of corn will correct itself but will take time, he said.
In other issues, Bell said he would ask for an increase of nine positions in the state Agriculture Department. The department was created in the 2005 legislative session by combining the state Plant Board, the Livestock and Poultry Commission and the Forestry Commission. The only new employees added were the agriculture secretary and an assistant.
The department needs more of a marketing role and its own legal counsel, Bell said.
House Speaker Benny Petrus, D-Stuttgart, also said there are agriculture-related functions in other state agencies that need to be moved to the Agriculture Department this session. Bell has mentioned some positions in the past, such as an aquaculture, or fish-farming, division in the Arkansas Development Finance Authority.