California farmers are hoping to strike oil — vegetable oil, that is — with a series of experimentaltrials involving crops that can be processed into biodiesel, an increasingly sought-after fuel squeezed from oilseed plants.
Biodiesel producers would also be competing for market share and investment and research money with other biofuels such as ethanol.
Some 620,000 acres of corn are expected to be planted in California this year, much of which could be used to produce ethanol.
In addition, new research suggests that the 40,000 acres of sugar beets grown in the state could be turned into that fuel.
insidebayarea
