With Big Money Flowing to Biofuels Research, Universities Vie to Harvest Energy From Crops

By JEFFREY BRAINARD

Ames, Iowa

On an overcast, chilly day in late March, scraggly rows of experimental crops line the test plots here at Iowa State University's research farm.

Corn is king in Iowa, both as a food grain and now as a focus of efforts to rev up the biofuel industry. But these...