When I saw a booth that posed the question, “How is a cow like an ethanol production plant?” I had to stop for a visit.
Manning the booth is Nick Baker, U. S. Dairy Forage Research Center. Nick says that basically the cow’s rumen uses microbes to break down forage and feed into the energy it needs much like an ethanol plant which then converts the sugars produced into alcohol. ‘Nuff said.
I asked him his take on the whole food vs. fuel debate and he believes as I do that there’s plenty of biomass available to not only meet food production needs but energy as well. He’s working on a project to utilize switchgrass in the production of ethanol and says the technology is available now to do so.
Listen to our “Milking Parlor” podcast with Nick here: 
Interview with Nick Baker (MP3)
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