February 17, 2009
Although I am rarely awake past 11:00 on weeknights these days, I did catch Josh Tickell’s appearance on the “Tonight Show” with Jay Leno last night. Jay is a hero of mine, not just because of his affable wit, but because of his appreciation for classic cars and innovative fuels. He uses biodiesel himself in his Ecojet. Unfortunately, although it was exciting to see biodiesel take center stage on a show viewed by millions, anything positive that may have come out of his appearance was undone in one breath.
I am beyond disappointed that Tickell has apparently decided to use his documentary, Fuel, as a tool to attack biodiesel made from agricultural products. Or at least that is what it seemed like when he said that he realized during the making of the movie that using some types of biodiesel was starving people. It goes to show how insidious the campaign to thwart progress really is. Even biodiesel champions have fallen victim to the smear campaign that would have us remain addicted to foreign oil.
About 60 percent of U.S. biodiesel is made from soybean oil. Tickell should know that in reality, current and future biodiesel production from soybean oil has a net positive impact on the food supply. Soybeans are grown for their 80% protein meal, and by using the 20% oil portion for biodiesel, we increase the value of the oil portion and the whole bean, and decrease the price of the 80% protein portion, which is what is used for food and feed.
Nobody will ever starve because of biodiesel use, unless they subsist solely on Italian dressing, mayonnaise, french fries, margarine and candy bars, and they inexplicably have no ability to switch to healthier and more abundant sources of plant protein. Furthermore, biodiesel comes from a diverse array of raw material, which offers unique opportunities for expansion and growth of the overall base of materials from which biodiesel can be made.
The Grocery Manufacturers Association just waged a $15 million PR campaign to brand biofuels as the reason for their high food prices (in order to divert negative attention away from their record profits). They have been fairly successful in branding the public’s perception of “biofuels from corn and soy” as a bad thing. But corn ethanol is completely different than soy biodiesel. It is inexplicable to me that Tickell has jumped on this bandwagon of helping to brand current biodiesel production as bad. Especially, in light of the good work he has done in the past, in authoring the book Biodiesel America. The National Biodiesel Board partnered with him on that book, and I even wrote the forward for it.
In the book, Tickell says “…an excess of 133 million gallons of soybean oil had been produced. Biodiesel demand can help ‘soak up’ much of the excess vegetable oil on the market, while stabilizing oilseed prices and giving farmers a much needed break from market swings.” It is still true today. In December 2008, there were approximately 350 million gallons of soybean oil in inventory.
The NBB has invested in developing many feedstocks to further extend our supply of oils for biodiesel production. This includes our full support of biodiesel produced from algae. We are investing research dollars into algae development, so we know what the challenges are. The fact is that algal biodiesel does not yet exist on a commercial level. Soy biodiesel does, and it is <<sustainable. >>
Biodiesel should power the bus, not be thrown under it.