A panel of bio-based product manufacturers told the Senate Agriculture Committee on June 17 that federal policy has been vital to the development of their products, but they also offered a few suggestions for the future.
At a hearing entitled “Grow it Here, Make it Here: Creating Jobs through Bio-Based Manufacturing,” Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., emphasized she had included job-creating programs in the energy title of the 2014 farm bill.
After the hearing, Stabenow hosted a “Spotlight on Innovation” event in the Russell Building's Kennedy Caucus Room, where 35 companies from around the country displayed their bio-based manufacturing products.
“More than 3,000 companies in the United States either manufacture or distribute bio-based products,” Stabenow said at the hearing.
“And what does ‘bio-based’ mean? It means instead of using petroleum-based chemicals to manufacture products, companies are creating new products from American-grown agriculture crops like soybeans and corn,” she said.
“This shift toward using bio-degradable and renewable materials grown on farms here in the U.S. displaces the need for foreign-based petroleum, and helps to create American jobs.”
Scott Vitters, the general manager of the Coca-Cola Co. division that has pioneered plant-based bottles, said that the Biorefinery Assistance Program and Biomass Research and Development Program, and support for energy crops grown specifically for manufacturing purposes “are truly helping open doors to new bio-based manufacturing opportunities and jobs here in the U.S.”
Vitters dismissed concerns that bio-based manufacturing will interfere with food production.
“As one of the largest buyers of sugars and starches in the world I can assure that any trend with the potential of negatively impacting food and feed supplies would be of significant concern to our company,” he said.
Vitters noted that Coca-Cola, based in Atlanta, joined with the World Wildlife Fund and other companies to launch the Bioplastic Feedstock Alliance “focused on guiding the evaluation and sustainable development of plant-based feedstocks for plastics.”
Kurtis Miller of Cargill Industrial Specialties in Hopkins, Minn., said the government should support research and development through several agencies and “revise regulations to differentiate between traditional industrial products and bio-based products with governmentally recognized environmental attributes such as low toxicity in soil and water, and high biodegradability.”
Miller also said the government’s BioPreferred program to purchase bio-based products whenever possible “has sent a strong message to the marketplace.”
But he added, “Although we’ve had a lot of products tested and approved, if there is absolutely no cost saving or significant improvement in value for the government, typically we don’t move forward,” Miller said.
Adam Monroe, president of Novozymes, North America Inc., said that the Biomass Crop Assistance Program is important in establishing new feedstock supply chains.
Monroe said that Chemtex, a Novozymes partner, is designing an advanced renewable fuel plant.
“Their plan is to grow energy crops on fields currently sprayed with hog waste and convert the feedstock into fuel using our enzymes,” he said.
“We work with many partners in new bio-refinery products and the investor community is watching this as well and trying to understand the technology,” Monroe said. “The Biorefinery Assistance Program refinery helps investors to off-set their uncertainties.”
J.D. Hankins, a vice president and co-owner of Hankins Inc., a Ripley, Miss., lumber company, thanked the committee for including language that forest products are eligible for a “bio-based label,” but said the industry is “anxiously awaiting” the completion of the USDA rule that will govern the program.
Hankins said his industry is hopeful that USDA employees “will ensure the rule takes into consideration the many innovations throughout the forest products value chain.”
Ashford Galbreath of the Lear Corporation in Southfield, Mich., which uses soybean oil to make foam padding used in automotive seats, head restraints, armrests, and consoles, said the most important source of funding for research in his field had been the checkoff money from the United Soybean Board.
In response to a question from Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, whether consumers are willing to pay a premium for a bio-based product, Galbreath said that when Ford first introduced soy-based car seats, people on the West Coast went to car dealerships and asked “if this is the place where they sell soy foam in the Mustang.”
Lear’s soy foam is now used in many Ford, General Motors and Hyundai models, but Galbreath said automotive sales are primarily price-driven.
Some customers are “willing to pay a premium, but we still struggle with being price competitive unless we are adding value,” Galbreath said.
Source: www.hagstromreport.com