Soybeans sprout new alliance
Here's an interesting article on a new collaboration regarding different uses for soybeans, including genetic modification and biofuels.
Best,
Alisa
Soybeans sprout new alliance
By Rachel Melcer
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
August 30, 2006
Bunge North America Inc., based in Maryland Heights, and DuPont's Agriculture and Nutrition group are teaming up to see just how much can be squeezed from a soybean.
The companies, which three years ago formed St. Louis-based Solae Co. to improve soy foods and created the Bunge DuPont Biotech Alliance, said Tuesday their focus is moving beyond human food.
The biotech alliance will find ways soybeans can yield oils for industrial use, greater quantities of biodiesel fuel and more nutritious animal feed, said Erik Fyrwald, group vice president of DuPont Agriculture and Nutrition. Resulting products will carry a new brand name, Treus -- pronounced TREE-us..
With about 20 people based at Bunge's headquarters, the alliance will draw upon each founder's expertise:
•DuPont's Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc. subsidiary, based in Des Moines, Iowa, will sort seed to find and breed those with optimal end-use traits, as well as adding other useful qualities through genetic engineering.
•DuPont is working to develop improved and more economical biofuels, including soybean-based biodiesel.
•Bunge, which operates grain elevators, oilseed-processing plants, refineries for edible oils and packaging facilities, will help refine processing methods and identify customers.
Solae, a $1.1 billion company that brings improved soy protein food products to market, may be among the alliance's customers. In particular, it would be interested in soybeans genetically modified for higher content of healthy Omega 3 fatty acids, Fyrwald said.
In soybean-based food, fuel and fiber, "We just see a critically big opportunity for growth," Fyrwald said.
"At a time when there's so much market opportunity and so much technology, collaborating to bring things to market quickly and leverage others' expertise with your own is an essential ingredient to success," he added.
Bunge and DuPont are not alone in seeing green in soybeans.
Monsanto Co. of Creve Coeur, the world's leading developer of biotech crops, is pursuing many of the same targets. Other competitors are Syngenta AG, a Swiss agribusiness, and Bayer CropScience of Raleigh, N.C., a unit of German conglomerate Bayer AG.
Soybean growers, too, are promoting novel and increased uses of their crop. The United Soybean Board funds research and marketing efforts. Grower cooperatives are among producers and innovators in biofuels.
Bob Callanan, spokesman for the Creve Coeur-based American Soybean Association, said growers welcome any effort to improve soybeans and their market. But it is unclear how much the Bunge-DuPont alliance will accomplish.
The alliance's only product so far, soybeans with low-linolenic oil that ultimately reduce harmful trans fats in food, were planted on 35,000 acres in 2005 when they were introduced. This year 200,000 acres were planted and next year that will more than double, Fyrwald said.
The alliance product pipeline includes soybeans genetically modified to further reduce the need for trans fat-producing hydrogenation of packaged foods -- and, in early testing, is proving useful as an environmentally friendly industrial oil, Fyrwald said.
The alliance also is developing biotech soybeans with improved protein content, which boosts the nutritional and monetary value of an animal feed co-product of biodiesel production. Another effort seeks to increase overall yield per acre.
"We're still very focused on nutrition," said Troy Hobbs, alliance business manager. "But we're also focused on sustainability … and functionality."
