A hard-pounding rain made it nearly impossible to talk inside the big metal building and the storm had knocked out the power, but Pete Nelson had just driven an hour in the mess and was determined to make his presentation.
In one hand, he held a soil-caked, just-plucked sugar beet, and in the other, a Mason jar full of dark sugar beet juice, or "the new oil" as he called it.
Sweet sorghum is one of the new energy crops that researchers say can be readily grown in the Mid-South and brought to market using Memphis' logistics networks.
Yes, Nelson meant oil, as in petroleum. Anything that can be made from a barrel of oil, he said, can be made from the dark brown syrup inside his Mason jar. Jet fuel, plastics, lubricants and anything in between can be made from the juice his company crushes from sugar beets and sweet sorghum.
