As bio-fuel continues to capture the imagination of US consumers and policymakers, producers, particularly those in the Northeast states, are scrambling to determine how they can participate in growing feedstock that “green” fuel companies will be demanding.

Is corn ethanol the only option? Are grasses and woody shrubs feasible alternatives? If so, which biomass is best suited to the Northeast’s weather and land conditions?

An effort launched earlier this year by Cornell University and the nonprofit research funding group New York Farm Viability Institute aims to answer these questions and others with an initiative to grow grasses for biofuel.

The project will work with growers throughout the state to evaluate which feedstock produces high yields economically as part of conventional field rotation and on marginal lands.

Researchers said they would keep an eye directed at how these plants might be used to improve poor-soil lands or rehabilitate field and vegetable crop land. Additionally, researchers will coordinate with ongoing conversion studies, including those at Cornell, to identify grasses best suited for growing, harvesting and converting for transport and use as fuel, including ethanol, stove pellets and others.

“The value in this project is in providing funding for another piece of the puzzle. There’s ongoing research conducted through the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the College of Engineering,” said Michael P. Hoffmann, director of the Cornell University Agriculture Experiment Station. “Some of our research has focused on techniques for converting cellulose into ethanol, including fermentation processes and identifying appropriate organisms for conversion.

“New York Farm Viability Institute’s commitment dovetails perfectly.

“The university and the institute will contribute an important step forward in creating a body of research that’s needed on-farm to produce these crops all the way through conversion of plants into energy feedstock.”

Stressing farmer interests is a priority for the institute.

“Can producing feedstock for biofuel be a profitable, alternative enterprise for farmers? How can a biofuel feedstock fit into my rotation? Can bio-fuel feedstock be a good alternative for underutilized and/or marginal land? These are the questions the Institute hopes to study can shed some light on,” said John Lincoln, New York Farm Bureau President and chairman of the NYFVI Board of Directors.