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A U.S. Senate resolution introduced this summer would put the United States on track to obtain more fuel from working lands over the next two decades.

Known as 25x25, the initiative aims to provide at least 25 percent of the nation's energy from renewable fuels such as wind, solar and biomass by the year 2025.

Bill Richards, who farms near Circleville, is co-chair of the 25x25 steering committee. Richards said that this is not the start of another farm or energy organization, but a way to facilitate discussions among renewable energy stakeholders.

"The next step will be forming policy," said Richards, a former chief of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Soil Conservation Service.

OFBF is part of a coalition of more than 250 groups that are backing the program.

"This is not a silver bullet. But it's a great, coordinated plan," said Dale Arnold, OFBF director of energy services.

Arnold said that the plan reaches beyond ethanol and biodiesel to include a wider range of renewable energy sources that can be produced in Ohio.

"We're not going to be dominant in one particular type of fuel or energy source," he said. "We're going to be a player in several."

Ohio's access to the electrical grid makes it an ideal location to produce energy from wind, solar, biomass and other technologies, Arnold added.

An opportunity to examine renewable energy solutions will likely come as legislators begin discussions on the next farm bill.

"The last farm bill was food and fiber," Richards said. "This one's going to be food, fiber and fuel."

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said that he expects energy to play a significant role in the next farm bill. Speaking last month to farmers in Union County, Johanns said that while Congress ultimately writes the bill, the USDA will be "very involved" in making recommendations.

"I have to believe that under anybody's definition of the next farm bill, you're going to see a very strong energy title," he said.

A challenge facing the 25x25 initiative is getting farmers as well as conservation and environmental groups to agree on energy policies. Richards said he is optimistic that there will be some issues that everybody will be able to rally around.

"Expensive energy is just going to bring a whole different world to all of us," he said.