TRYING SOMETHING NEW

Under the heading “never too late” I continue to be obsessed with “jatropha.”
Jatropha is a plant that grows in almost arid Land. My first encounter with it was in a story several years ago about how Mali, a struggling equatorial African country, discovered that it could grow this remarkable plant. Since that revelation, there has been little more news. The idea seems either to have atrophied because of indifference, or has been (this is for the conspiracy theorists) silenced by the reigning biofuel growers: corn, soybean, and sugar. I have written before, without any results, about this miracle plant

Is there any way that I could gather about me a group of like-minded people who want to examine actually buying some marginal farmland and turning it into an oil-producing giant?

I am not exaggerating. “giant” would be the word for the amount of biofuel harvested from this remarkable plant. It literally grows on its own. It produces four times as much oil as soy and ten times as much as corn. Daimler, and perhaps other companies, has been looking at using this biofuel to replace diesel.

There’s more: after the oil has been pressed from the seeds the residue can be made into cakes to fuel electric generation or, with its potassium and nitrate, into high grade fertilizer.

What I fear most is that far too many people have a vested interested in the growing of corn, or the refining of sugar for fuel.. Both require good well watered agricultural land, which could be better used to feed people. I repeat: Jatropha does not need prime land.

I am also reminded of one of my idols: the late Richard Thomas who died tragically a couple of years ago after a highway accident. Richard was always confounding the experts. It was he who discovered that he could grow an inedible tuber on his farm near Burk’s Falls. This product grew in much less than friendly, fertile conditions, He used it to make alcohol. He converted an old Volvo to use the fuel. And was driving all over Muskoka happily avoiding gas pumps. What happened to Richard’s dream? Apparently he was told by the RCMP that he was operating an illegal still and that the quality of the alcohol was not fit for human consumption. But he only wanted to feed his Volvo!

I wonder, if he were alive today, this man who came within a few votes of winning the provincial Liberal leadership but was beaten by David Peterson and The Establishment, would be looking at Jatropha. He was a visionary. I am not.

Anyone want to buy a run down farm and try to set the biofuel world on its ears?
.