Switchgrass - Bioenergy Crop Plants - page 584

improving production and conversion efficiency. For a plant that, 20 years ago, was little more
than an ecofriendly native prairie plant with some applications in livestock agriculture, this
represents a social phenomenon on an unprecedented scale. But that brings us to the other side of
that sword, which represents all of the other species that are being ignored or have been relegated
to “underfunded” status. Meeting societal needs and governmental goals for bioenergy production
(Perlack et al. 2005) will require many different crop species and feedstocks, grown on a wide
range of soils, habitats, and climatic conditions. Switchgrass cannot, and should not, be the only
focus of a feedstock development program for cellulosic bioenergy. There are many other potential
candidates for feedstock development that could become as or more important than switchgrass on a
regional, habitat-specific, or management-specific basis. Switchgrass is an interesting and amazing
plant species that, together with other potential plant species, has huge potential for helping to wean
the human race from dependence on fossil fuels.
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