“Much has been said and written about the siphoning off of feed grains from food production to produce ethanol for automobiles and other combustion engine equipped vehicles, creating shortages and raising prices for both fuel and food. I have a suggestion for another source of biofuel which would have no impact on food, and alleviate several other problems: Kudzu! Kudzu grows anywhere it is allowed to in the southern United States, and is a pest plant that has caused untold millions of damage to trees and other native plant life, fences and even barns and other farm structures. Kudzu is not a native species to America. … I would challenge our agricultural scientists to find a way to derive fuel for use in automobiles and other vehicles, just as they have from corn and other grains, from kudzu. The benefits would be multiple; it could be harvested by convict labor at minimum cost to the state, and then sold to the fuel companies at a profit, a new revenue source for our financially stressed state.” [editor’s note: Yeah, because slave labor to support government energy schemes is like, the American way, right? - TLK] (05/11/08)