A biofuel company in Galesburg will host a meeting tonight for farmers to learn about a new crop. Pennycress Energy is working with the city and a regional ecnomic development group called, the EBI Network, to develop and produce a new, biodiesel fuel.
Gary Camarano, the network's Global Strategies Director, says the US Department of Agriculture laboratory in Peoria researched and developed pennycress as a biofuel cover crop. The plant is from the mustard family, and grows in the winter between corn and soybean rotations.
Pennycress Energy Company already has agreements with several farmers in Knox County and the surrounding area. Camarano says the company provides the seeds and plants them by dropping them from an airplane. Pennycress will pay farmers 25 dollars per acre to harvest it, and the company buys the seeds.
Information meetings about pennycress have already been held on Monmouth and Macomb. Tonight's will be held at the Knox County Farm Bureau in Galesburg, at 6 o'clock.