Getting energy from agricultural products might seem like a newfangled idea, but it has a long history as shown by this 1938 USDA publication:
| Creator | Jacobs, P. Burke; Newton, Harry P. | |
| Title | Motor fuels from farm products | |
| Source | Miscellaneous Publication United States Department Agriculture | |
| Year | 1938 | |
| Volume_Info | no. 327 | |
| Pages | 129 p. | |
| DocID | mp0327 | |
| Publisher | U.S. Dept. of Agriculture |
http://naldr.nal.usda.gov/NALWeb/Agricola_Link.asp?Accession=CAT87206224
Interestingly, the idea to create fuel from ag products wasn’t born from energy independence, but from a desire to boost prices for agricultural produce due to continuing food surpluses.
The above publication was digitized by the National Agriculture Library as part of their Digital Repository and I thank them for putting this bit of history on the Internet.
Filed under: energy, government documents, history
