The main focus of the Florida Farm to Fuel Summit in St. Petersburg last week was getting biofuels production going in the Sunshine State.

President/CEO Alan Banks of Losonoco, Inc, the company building Florida’s first ethanol plant in Bartow, says he wants to talk to citrus people about alternative crops for empty acreage and citrus by-products that can be used in ethanol production.

“We have the only existing fuel ethanol plant in Florida,” said Banks. “With an aim of being up and running by the summer of 2008. For that, we need about four million bushels of something.”

The plant was originally designed as a corn plant, but Losonoco says they are encouraging farmers in the area to grow some other crops that might be economically feasible, such as sorghum.

Gary Cooper, President of Southeast Agnet and Citrus Industry Magazine, interviewed Banks at the summit.

Listen to that interview here: [audio:http://www.zimmcomm.biz/audio/banks.mp3]