Non-Food Biodiesel Crop to Take Root in US NW

US: November 15, 2007

CHICAGO - Farmers will begin planting the first US crop for making commercial biodiesel that should not have the unfortunate side effect of pushing up food prices, the CEO of an agriculture biotech company said Tuesday.

Next week the governor of a US Pacific Northwest state will announce that farmers will plant a crop called camelina, said Tom Todaro, the CEO of private agricultural biotech company Targeted Growth, Inc. His company has bred camelina to increase its yields.

Todaro would not say which state the crop will initially be grown in, but added that it can be grown from Washington state and Montana to Minnesota.

Camelina, which people once grew to fuel oil lamps, should not spark much competition with land used to grow food crops because it can be grown on fallow land unsuitable for most other crops, said Todaro.

"It is hopefully the first generation of the promise people make on helping solve the fuel versus food debate," Todaro said in an interview on the sidelines of the Soya and Oilseed Summit 2007.

The federal government has subsidized biodiesel production to help wean the country off of foreign oil. US biofuel output is minuscule compared to petroleum, but has also grown in the last two years because of concern about global warming and lofty crude prices.

Unfortunately, the interest has helped hike prices for soybeans, the main US biodiesel source, and the basis for a wide variety of foods and animal feeds.

Commercial amounts of camelina will be harvested starting next year. Todaro estimated that between 2009 and 2010 up to 1 million acres of land will be planted with the camelina that will produce vegetable oil to make up to 100 million gallons of biodiesel per year.

Ultimately, camelina may generate only up to 10 percent of US biodiesel, so certainly it alone won't solve the problem of biofuels pushing up food prices, said Todaro.

But it could be one of many non-food fixes that have eventually have potential to take market share from US energy made from food crops, he said.

Targeted Growth and many other companies such as Valcent Products are also researching ways to make fuel from algae, or pond scum.

Petroleum product pipelines, many of which are owned by oil companies, have been slow to accept biodiesel blends fearing they could contaminate traditional motor fuels, said Scott Susich, a fuel expert at the Energy Management Institute, an organization that advises energy companies.

But big oil companies are already looking for new ways to make alternative fuels from animal fats and the more biodiesel made from sources beyond food crops, the better the alternative energy industry will fare, he said. (Editing by Christian Wiessner)

REUTERS NEWS SERVICE