By Jay Meisel

Meisel@hometownnewsol.com

ST. LUCIE COUNTY - In rural areas of St. Lucie County, large areas of land previously used for growing citrus remain vacant.

That's because of economic conditions and citrus diseases, such as a greening and canker, agricultural officials say.

Last week, the St. Lucie County Cooperative Extension Office provided farmers with a possible alternative.

That is to grow crops, such as sunflower seeds and algae, which can produce biofuels.

But speakers at the meeting said the question of whether such operations can be profitable remains unresolved.

Randal Van Wedel, a proponent of biofuels from Richmond, Calif., said extracting the oil from sunflower seeds, cotton, canola, soybeans and other plants is a "potential way to offset air pollution" from diesel engines.

The goal is to create fuel that will work with existing engines for school buses, garbage trucks, tractors and combines, he said.

At the same time, the temptation to cut down forests to provide land for growing those plants must be avoided, he said.

In Vermont, the number of acres devoted to plants or biofuel has increased from 3 to 318 during the past four years, as dairy farms went out of business, said Chris Callahan, an engineer based in New York who works with Vermont farmers.

Jatropha, a tropical ornamental plant, is another possible source of biofuel, said Wagner Vendrame, an associate professor at the University of Florida's tropical research and education center in Homestead.

The plant does well in dry conditions, but can be negatively affected by a lot of rain and cold weather, he said.

One advantage of it, he said, is that its seeds are toxic, which reduces damage from insects and the need for pesticides.

More research, he said, needs to be done to assess the suitability of the plant for biofuel.

Algae is another potential source of biofuel, said T.J. Evens, a research ecologist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's horticulture research lab in Fort Pierce.

But whether producing algae to create biofuel would be profitable is still an unanswered question, he said.

Dan Chellemi, a research plant pathologist at the lab, said the potential exists for farmers to grow multiple crops per year to create biofuel.