USDA grants research funds for on-farm biodiesel project

LaCrosse farmer Steve Camp was awarded a $28,000 grant from the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service to further his on-farm production of biodiesel.

Camp’s grant was one of four of the agency’s Conservation Innovation Grants awarded this year.

Camp has for the past two years planted camelina, a genetic cousin of canola, and has pressed the harvested seed to use the oil to make biodiesel he then uses on his farm.

The grant money will help Camp get a better picture of the sustainability and financial viability of growing crops that can be processed on the farm into biodiesel that is use...