Innovative Products Offer Sustainable Markets for Farm-Grown Products

By Peter Nelson

Biobased products are being hailed by governments and corporations as a major part of solutions to environmental problems associated with factory emissions coupled with non-sustainable production and manufacturing procedures. Various advocates and stakeholders to the “biobased economy” also point to the reduction of dependence on imported petroleum, enhanced opportunities to develop rural industries, and other benefits from the use of farm-based industrial resources.

Biobased products have been getting top billing in speeches by U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman over the last several months. She is forecasting “entirely new markets for pharmacological, energy, industrial and environmental products and services all made from farm crops.” She has also said, “The potential is staggering in renewable energy resources from agriculture in so many different product areas.”

Biobased products are non-food, non-feed agricultural products that harness the energy of the sun to provide raw materials for industry. The Federal Government has set the goal of tripling the U.S. use of bioenergy and biobased products by the year 2010. Meeting this goal could create $15-$20 billion a year in new income for farmers and rural America, and reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions. Biobased products include liquid fuels, energy, chemicals, lubricants, plastics, paper, construction materials, and advanced composites. The USDA projects that the number of biobased startups will go from around 200 companies in 2000 to over 600 companies by 2003 in the U.S. alone.

To the farmer and the agricultural entrepreneur, the “biobased economy” offers a dynamic, expanding industry in which to stake out an equity position. The biobased products industry is normally associated with kenaf paper, corn ethanol, and soybean inks. However many of the most innovative market areas are for products that are not normally in the national spotlight. These products include candy wrappers, plastics for manufacturing washing machines, core fillers for high-performance car tires, biodegradable paper plates, and spray foam insulation.

Bragging such novel characteristics as “20 percent higher twist retention”, Cargill Dow recently introduced the first commercially viable, all-natural confectionery film and rigid packaging alternative made from NatureWorks™, a natural polymer derived from annually renewable resources, such as corn. On the other end of the product spectrum, scientists at Iowa State University are making soybean-based plastics which offer desirable thermal and mechanical properties. The soybean-based plastics have good sound and vibration dampening properties that could allow them to be used as a noise baffle for washing machines.

One of the most novel new biobased products is a tire containing a compound incorporating a new starch-based filler material called BioTRED, which uses corn as its feedstock. The filler material is produced by Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company. EarthShell Packaging®, a line of biodegradable disposable plates and cups made from agricultural fibers, will soon be available in about 90 stores throughout the Northwestern U.S., after being tested in late 2001 at Wal-Mart stores in Portland, Oregon and Baltimore, Maryland. BiocorpNA’s utensils (see above photo) were used in the Sydney Olympics.

According to an article by John Van in the Chicago Tribune, “A company based in Princeton, Ill., has devised its own construction material — a spray of foam insulation manufactured from soybean oil. Foam insulation is just the latest product developed by the Urethane Soy Systems Co., which is pioneering a range of plastic materials made from soybean oil.”

These niche products offer a glimpse at the thousands of potential end uses for farm products, and show opportunities for farmers, cooperatives and rural entrepreneurs.

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