I am an agricultural economist investigating the potential
of different biomass feedstocks for non-food uses (biofuels,
papermaking, etc). At the moment, I am particularly interested
by the clothing industry (could use flax, hemp, etc.). My work
focuses on crops that could be grown on the North-East of North
America, but it would be interesting to compare the economics of
these alternative crops to the #1 fibre crop: cotton. Would any of
you know what it costs to grow cotton in the US ? What about
governmet susidies ? Is there any ? Any contact persons you could suge
suggest ? Thank you for help !
Patrick Girouard
Ag. Economist, Montreal, Canada
xkfl@musicb.mcgill.ca