From Alabama fields to everyday products: BRIDGES Engine reimagines rural innovation

Your lunch takeout container. Your car's interior paneling. The pavement on your street. 

Imagine if, instead of petroleum-based plastics, these products were manufactured from biodegradable grasses grown in Alabama. 

"It's good for the economy. It's good for the environment. And it's good for our farmers," said Oladiran Fasina, Auburn University biosystems engineering department head. 

Fasina has spent decades studying how biobased products could be used in the marketplace. What's been missing, he said, is the infrastructure to make it work at scale — reliable markets for growers, manufacturing partners and community investment. 

Enter the BRIDGES Engine, an initiative designed to transform underutilized farmland in Alabama and Tennessee into a launchpad for biobased consumer products. 

Co-led by HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology, Auburn University, the University of Tennessee, Volkswagen Group of America and AGgrow Tech LLC, BRIDGES brings together 85 additional partners from industry, government and academia. 

Tuesday, the National Science Foundation announced the BRIDGES Engine as one of the winners of its nationwide Regional Innovation Engines competition. BRIDGES will receive up to $160 million over 10 years to address critical challenges facing the Southeast, where communities need stronger agricultural markets, economic diversification and quality job opportunities. 

“This transformative investment from NSF, paired with the hundreds of years of combined expertise that the partners bring to the table, allows us to build something that hasn't existed before,” said Steve Taylor, vice president for research and economic development at Auburn.  

"For generations, the Southeast has exported agricultural commodities to others that create value-added products from them. In that system, our local or regional economies often don’t get to share in the higher value created from those final products. BRIDGES gives us an opportunity to reshape the regional economy by creating new industries, new jobs and new markets rooted in our strengths, right here in our own communities." 

How the BRIDGES model works

It starts with perennial fiber crops: switchgrass and miscanthus. 

BRIDGES aims to work with farmers in 45 Alabama counties and an additional 35 counties in Tennessee to convert low-performing or underutilized farmland into productive acreage for the grasses. 

The BRIDGES Engine has a goal of establishing 50,000 acres of perennial fiber crops across Alabama and Tennessee, generating an estimated $30 million in direct farm income annually. 

Leeanne Dillard, Alabama Extension forage specialist and associate professor, said switchgrass is native to Alabama, produces high yields, is drought resistant and can even improve soil health. 

"Alabama is home to over 4 million acres of pastures and grasslands. It's part of what makes Alabama beautiful," she said. "This project allows us to maintain those grasslands in a way that is economically beneficial." 

Dillard's role is to recruit farmers to grow the grasses and help ensure the crops' long-term success. 

"We want our farmers to feel comfortable with the production of the crop," Dillard said. "We want to see them through the establishment, management, as well as harvesting the grasses, because they're a little bit different than traditional annual crops." 

Once harvested, the fiber can be extracted and used in a variety of manufactured products. BRIDGES will initially focus on automotive, packaging and construction materials. 

The goal is to manufacture those products in and around the rural communities where the grasses are grown, attracting an estimated $2 billion in private capital investment and creating more than 4,000 higher-paying manufacturing and supply chain jobs, representing an annual direct wage impact of approximately $280 million. 

Helping farmers diversify in a difficult economy

Dillard, who works with producers through the Alabama Cooperative Extension System, was drawn to the project because of its potential benefits for farmers. 

"Rural communities are the heart of Alabama, which are largely supported by our farming families," she said. 

Raised on a family farm herself, Dillard is passionate about helping ensure family operations remain viable for future generations. She's seen firsthand how crop producers are struggling with prices near historic lows and believes grass production could provide a new revenue stream by making underutilized land profitable. 

"It could mean a lot for our farmers in Alabama and throughout the Southeast," she said. "Anything that we can do to diversify our farms helps give a steadier income for our farmers. They go into it because they want this lifestyle for their family, for their children, for their grandchildren." 

When Fasina first encouraged rural sociologist Kelli Russell to become involved, she hesitated. She already had a full portfolio of projects underway. 

It didn't take long for Russell to realize this one was different. 

Rather than addressing a single challenge, BRIDGES tackles the entire rural ecosystem at once. 

"BRIDGES incorporates rural investment, industry partnerships, community engagement, workforce development and then, of course, the science," said Russell, who will lead the community engagement component of the project. "It's a project that encompasses all the pieces that you need for something to be really successful." 

She said the project was intentionally designed around the strengths and needs of Alabama and Tennessee while focusing on the people it aims to serve. 

It reflects the questions that guide her own work: 

"How can we do research that really impacts the citizens of our state?" Russell said. "How can we not only do the research, but deliver it directly to the people that can actually benefit from it?" 

Solving a rural "chicken-and-egg" problem

While many families want to remain in their rural communities, economic opportunities can be limited. But as Russell points out, attracting investment isn't easy without an available workforce. 

"There's not going to be a large investment in workforce development programs unless you already have the jobs there," she said. "However, a business owner may be reluctant to establish a new business in an area if they're not sure if they already have a ready and willing workforce." 

"It is a circular problem," Russell said. 

BRIDGES, she said, offers a way to address both sides of the equation while keeping more of the value created from Alabama's natural resources within the state. 

"Rather than thinking about value-added products being created somewhere else, we're creating — we're growing — the raw materials and making the final products here in the state of Alabama," she said.