Ready to bet the farm on renewable energy?

Are you ready to bet the farm on renewable energy? Evidently, USDA expects you to, based on a report from the newsletter EnergyWashington Week.

Here's the first paragraph from a July 5 article posted on Ag Observatory:

There is a vast and largely unencumbered store of wealth in the agricultural community that could be used to finance the agricultural sector's move to becoming a major player in U.S. energy production, Department of Agriculture's Undersecretary for Rural Development Thomas Dorr told an audience at last month's Renewable Energy Finance Forum in New York.

Dorr estimates that American agriculture has $1.45 trillion in mostly "free and clear" equity that could be borrowed against to finance renewable fuel expansion. That includes land, buildings and equipment, he said.

Since many farmers I know are borrowed up to their chins, this vast, untapped source of equity must exist someplace outside of the South.

Click here to read the full report.