Marsha Folsom Bringing Bamboo to Bama

by Tiffeny Owens (Cullman Times) On Friday, the former Alabama First Lady shared how her company, Resource Fiber, plans to make the Asian plant the state’s new cash crop at the Cullman Area Chamber of Commerce’s community luncheon. The company was born out of a three-day meeting at the Folsoms’ home in 2011 where she and her business associates mapped out a way to transplant it in fertile the Black Belt, utilizing the south Alabama region’s soil and agriculture heritage to create a wide array of products.
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After taking six years to mature, the moso bamboo can be harvested annually for decades, she said. Bamboo has a wide variety of uses, from biofuels to building materials, beer, biochar (which can make soil more productive), biochemical specialty textiles (due to its naturally anti-microbial characteristics), purification, bio-plastics, livestock feed, utility cross bars and furniture and cabinetry.
Just this week, Folsom said the company started its 100-acre nursery to test plant bamboo. In 2015, Resource Fiber plans to open its first manufacturing facility in Alabama. READ MORE and MORE