Strangely enough, bio diesel seems to actually have a beneficial application - blending in a very small percentage of recycled bio diesel into conventional petroleum diesel stocks to improve emissions and prolong engine life.
Ethanol, on the other hand, is an immoral waste of food grain to make a horrible fuel that requires more oil equivalent energy to distill than it provides as a fuel.
At the same time the cost of a bushel of corn has quadrupled , inflating food prices, causing world wide starvation and the overthrow of several governments including the Egyptian government
Ethanol bad, Butanol good (for fuel that is).
The AG department is going about this the wrong way. They should be requiring the production of X # of gallons of bio-diesel from a farm that is receiving CRP (crop reduction program) payments. Once the farmer starts producing bio-diesel, the first consumer in the food chain will be the farmer themselves. This will work to secure our crops and start to build a business eco system that will financially sustain the small farmer.
The AG department should work with farmers and colleges to create an opensource algae based small farming operation that does not take much time or money to produce bio-diesel. Then work to make sure that farm equipment can run on the bio-diesel.