Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T01:27:43.500Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

An Outlook for the Biofuels Industry in the Southern United States

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 September 2016

Anthony Crooks
Affiliation:
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Rural Development, in Washington, DC 20250–3252
John Dunn
Affiliation:
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Rural Development, in Washington, DC 20250–3252

Abstract

Two seemingly unrelated topics are discussed—an outlook for biofuels in the southern United States, along with an overview of the important role that information technology is playing in the fuel ethanol industry. The outlook discussion is limited to issues involving the two principal biofuels, fuel ethanol and biodiesel, and their respective feed stocks, corn and soybean oil. The two topics are linked with a description of how information technology (IT) has enabled the development of the fuel ethanol franchise and a discussion of how IT is changing the very nature of biofuel operations.

Type
Invited Paper Sessions
Copyright
Copyright © Southern Agricultural Economics Association 2006

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Resources

Carr, N. Does IT Matter? Information Technology and the Corrosion of Competitive Advantage. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2004.Google Scholar
Crooks, A., and Dunn, J.. The Impact of Information Technology on Farmer-Owned Ethanol Plants. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Agriculture/Rural Development, Research Report No. 209, May 2006.Google Scholar
Friedman, T. The World is Flat: A Brief History of the 21st Century. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005.Google Scholar
Hale, J.H. III, and Brown, J.. The Only Sustainable Edge: Why Business Strategy Depends on Productive Friction and Dynamic Specialization. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2005.Google Scholar
Kouba, R., Niles, D., Williams, J., and Bryan, T.. “Proposed Ethanol Plant List: 2005, United States & Canada,” Ethanol Producer Magazine 11(May 2005), pp. 2637. National Biodiesel Board. Internet site: http://www.biodiesel.org. (Accessed December 28, 2005).Google Scholar
Novozymes and BBI International. Fuel Ethanol: A Technological Revolution. Grand Forks, ND: BBI International Publishing, June 2004.Google Scholar
Renewable Fuels Association. Internet site: http://www.efhanolrfa.org. (Accessed December 28, 2005).Google Scholar
Smith, H., and Fingar, P.. IT Doesn't Matter, Business Processes Do: A Critical Analysis of Nicolas Carr's IT Article in the Harvard Business Review. Tampa: Meghan-Kiffer Press, 2003.Google Scholar
U.S. Department of Agriculture-National Agricultural Statistics Service. 2002 Census of Agriculture. Internet site: http://www.nass.usda.gov/Census_of_Agriculture/index.asp (Accessed December 23, 2005).Google Scholar