Biobased products were defined in the 2008 Farm Bill as a “commercial or industrial product, other than food or feed that consists primarily of raw agricultural materials, wastes or forestry materials.”

The Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station is addressing the challenges of the emerging biobased industry with research at several centers in the system. Researchers at the Tennessee Valley Research and Extension Center are looking at bioenergy rotations and at the Brewton Agricultural Research Unit scientists are growing bioenergy crops.

At the Plant Science Research Center studies are taking place in the propagation and nutritional needs of bio-fuel type grasses such as Miscanthus and switchgrass.