[235] Farm Credit Services 15K Grant, MTSU Funds Fuel Ricketts' Trips

News and Media Relations contact: Randy Weiler, 615-898-5616 or Randy.Weiler@mtsu.edu
MTSU Agriscience contact: Dr. Cliff Ricketts, 615-308-7605 or
Cliff.Ricketts@mtsu.edu


Farm Credit Services $15K grant, MTSU funds fuel Ricketts’ trips

MURFREESBORO — Dr. Cliff Ricketts of MTSU plans two coast-to-coast expeditions the next two years using different alternative fuel sources in two different vehicles.

His funding for the trips recently hit a positive note with the announcement of a $15,000 grant from Farm Credit Services of Mid-America and additional financial support from the MTSU Offices of the Provost and Research.

“I appreciate Farm Credit Services’ confidence in one of their own. We (Ricketts family) have borrowed from them for 50 years,” Ricketts, the 2008-09 MTSU Career Achievement Award recipient, said of the grant. “I’m appreciative of the ag industry supporting a professor doing a very creative thing that emphasizes the importance of agriscience.”

Ricketts, joined by a team of eight to 10 students traveling in a van, plans to drive a 1998 Toyota Prius converted hybrid from Savannah, Ga., to Long Beach, Calif., during spring break. The car will be powered by hydrogen, solar energy, ethanol and less than 10 gallons of gasoline, Ricketts said.

Ricketts’ 2013 plans include a cross-country trip using sun and hydrogen from water, he said.

MTSU alumnus Jack Swanson (’96), one of Ricketts’ former students, presented the Farm Credit Services check. Swanson eventually became the lending officer for Ricketts, who raises beef cattle, and whose family has received a Heritage Farm Award as 50-year, third-generation Farm Credit customers.

“I couldn’t think of anything that would be a better use of our stewardship funds,” Swanson said in a Farm Credit Services news release. “… The crux of Dr. Ricketts’ program is to help make the U.S. energy independent. It’s part of our mission to give back some of our earnings to those programs that fuel the future of agriculture.”

A School of Agribusiness and Agriscience professor, researcher and faculty member since 1976, Ricketts always has been in the forefront of alternative fuels exploration. In November 2010, he drove a 1994 Toyota Tercel from Bristol to West Memphis, Ark., with the sun and hydrogen from water as the fuel source.

In addition to the provost and research offices and Farm Credit Services, Ricketts said Brentwood, Tenn.-headquartered Tractor Supply Co. has provided 20 years of financial support and the MTSU College of Basic and Applied Sciences has been a longtime contributor to his research endeavors.


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Note to media: As Dr. Cliff Ricketts’ planned spring break coast-to-coast trip approaches, the Office of News and Media Relations will provide you with more details, including the planned route.

CAPTION FOR PHOTO

MTSU alumnus and Farm Credit Services assistant vice president Jack Swanson (’96) presents MTSU professor alternative fuel expert Dr. Cliff Ricketts with a $15,000 check to further his research.

Submitted photo


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