The Gastrocast Forum

[patobrien]

a recent associated press news story tells how bio-fuel giants are lining up to process and market animal fat. apparently, in this fledgling industry, soybeans already are overpriced in contrast to chicken fat and soon, fats from all other slaughtered creatures, as well.

where all this is likely to lead as far as food production goes has not yet entered the dialog. but it's not hard to imagine that the result will not be pleasant. perhaps it will be more profitable to raise genetically modified animals more prone to being fatty.

perhaps it will be even more desirable to clone animals that put on fat fast. the vision arises of cows, pigs, chickens and other beasts factory farmed in conditions where they grow so heavy they can't even stand up. half their bulk goes to the food table, half to the gas tank.

frightening stuff that should have remained in the sci-fi realm. what we already see in the industrial production of food is bad enough, but it seems we haven't seen anything yet.

Animal Fats Touted As Future Fuel Source
The Associated Press

BY CHRISTOPHER LEONARD

January 02, 2007

More biodiesel in the marketplace could help make biodiesel's cost even more competitive with diesel fuel Jerry Bagby is typical of the oil men who are prospecting for a fortune in the Midwestern biofuels boom. He's convinced there's oil in these hills _ and he's found a well that no one else is using.

Bagby and a longtime friend have cobbled together $5 million to build a new biodiesel plant on the lonely croplands outside this southeast Missouri town. They're betting they can hit paydirt by exploiting a generally overlooked natural resource that's abundant in these parts _ chicken fat.

There's a virtual gusher of the stuff at a nearby Tyson Foods Inc. poultry plant. Currently, the low-quality fat is shipped out of state to be rendered and used as a cheap ingredient in pet food, soap and other products.

Bagby and his partner, Harold Williams, plan to refine the gooey substance, mix it with soy bean oil and produce about 3 million gallons of biodiesel annually.

Today, only a tiny fraction of U.S. biodiesel is made from chicken fat, but that seems likely to change. The rising cost of soy bean oil _ which accounts for roughly 90 percent of all biodiesel fuel stock _ is pushing the industry to exploit cheap and plentiful animal fats.

The nation's biggest meat corporations haven taken notice. Tyson Foods announced in November it has established a renewable energy division that will be up and running during 2007. Competitors Perdue Farms Inc. and Smithfield Foods Inc. are making similar moves.

As meatpackers enter the field, they bring massive amounts of fuel stock that could make biodiesel cheaper and more plentiful.

The shift to animal fat as a fuel stock could be key to making the budding biodiesel industry a reliable fuel source for U.S. trucking fleets, said Vernon Eidman, a professor of economics at the University of Minnesota who has extensively studied the biofuels industry.

Eidman estimates that within five years, the U.S. will produce 1 billion gallons of biodiesel, and half of it will be made from animal fat. By that time soy bean-based biodiesel will account for about 20 percent of the total, he said.

For fuel refiners like Bagby, the allure of animal fat is clear. Soy bean oil costs 33 cents a pound while chicken fat costs 19 cents. He only plans to include soy bean oil in his blend because it adds necessary lubrication for engine parts.

'Soy bean oil is more expensive than other products, so we just use enough of it to make the system run clean,' Bagby said, gesturing toward a row of pipes and vats being installed in his new refinery.

For companies like Tyson, the attraction is simple. Being the nation's biggest meat company, Tyson is also the biggest producer of leftover fat from chicken, cattle and hogs.

Tyson is keeping the specifics of its renewable fuels division under tight wraps. But Tyson Vice President Jeff Webster told a recent investment conference the potential is clear. Tyson produces about 2.3 billion pounds of chicken fat annually from its poultry plants. That's about 300 million gallons that could be converted to fuel.

The market for biodiesel and ethanol really started to boom in August 2005, after passage of the federal Energy Policy Act, experts say. The bill set a new standard requiring the U.S. to use 7 billion gallons of renewable fuels by 2012.

While it's always been cheaper, animal fat was initially overlooked as a biodiesel fuel stock because of its uneven quality, Eidman said.

When the energy bill passed, soy bean oil was already widely sold as a food additive. Biodiesel refiners could depend on its quality because the oil was marketed and certified under a strict guidelines, Eidman said.

Animal fat also has its technical drawbacks. It clouds up at higher temperatures than soy-based biodiesel, which means it might thicken up when used in colder, northern cities, Eidman said. That might limit distribution to southern areas where temperatures don't often drop below 40 degrees or so.

While these factors kept animal fat in the background, the biodiesel industry has hit a turning point.

Increasing demand for soy bean oil as a fuel and as a food is making the price creep up. It now makes economic sense to invest in new technology to process animal fat into usable form as a fuel stock.

Tyson and Perdue are already experimenting with biodiesel. Both companies have started using biodiesel in their trucking fleets.

Salisbury, Md.-based Perdue is also selling soy bean oil as a biodiesel fuel stock through the company's Grain and Oilseed Division. The company also said this summer it's studying plans to build its own biofuels plants or invest in others.

Smithfield Foods has established its own biofuels division. The Smithfield BioEnergy group is studying how to turn hog waste into fuel and has also started producing biodiesel from vegetable oil. The company didn't comment on the division, but recent financial filings say the biodiesel program is still losing money because of startup costs.

Having a massive new source of fuel stock is a welcome development for the biodiesel industry, said Amber Thurlo Pearson, a spokeswoman for the National Biodiesel Board.

'More biodiesel in the marketplace could help make biodiesel's cost even more competitive with diesel fuel,' Pearson said.

The board estimates that U.S. biodiesel production is tripling annually, going from 25 million gallons in 2004 to 75 million gallons last year. The final tally for 2006 should be between 150 and 225 million.

Biodiesel costs about $1 a gallon more to produce than conventional diesel, but federal tax breaks for fuel distributors help hide that cost from consumers.

Bagby said his plant will be up and running by the end of January. His equipment can refine soy bean oil, cotton seed oil and animal fat. That gives him flexibility to use whatever's cheapest on the commodity markets. His first batches will be made from soy bean oil because it's easiest to get the equipment calibrated.

After that? Soybean oil has a long way to drop before it's as affordable as chicken fat.

'You can see the difference in cost,' he said.

[patobrien]

i hate to respond to my own messages, but this begs to be here. it's a recent boston globe article.

US factories producing ethanol fuel for cars may consume as much as half of the country's corn crop next year -- more than double earlier government predictions -- creating competition for grain stocks that could drive up supermarket prices for cereals, meat, eggs, and dairy products, according to a report released yesterday.

"The world needs a strategy to deal with this unfolding competition between automobiles and people for the grain supply," said Lester R. Brown , president of the Earth Policy Institute , a Washington- based advocacy organization that wrote the report. Brown called for a moratorium of ethanol plants in the United States "so we can catch our breath and determine how much we want to harvest our corn for ethanol."

Democrats in Congress are expected in the next two weeks to begin a major push for alternative energy, including ethanol, as a way of reducing the country's reliance on foreign oil.

Ethanol plants use corn to create a synthetic form of oil. Feedlot owners, who intensely feed corn to cattle and pigs for four to six months before slaughter, have seen their costs rise dramatically because of ethanol production. The growing competition for corn is expected to create price hikes that will be passed on to consumers who buy anything from milk to pork chops, Brown said.

Ethanol production doubled from 2001 to 2005, and the report said it could double again by 2008 to more than 15 billion gallons, or roughly 6 percent of US auto fuel needs.

The report found that 139 million metric tons of corn will be needed for ethanol by the 2008 harvest season, or roughly half of the nation's crop, according to US Agriculture Department estimates. In February 2006, the Agriculture Department estimated that just 60 million metric tons of corn would be needed for ethanol.

Brown, a widely respected environmentalist and founder of the Worldwatch Institute, which studies global environmental issues, said the Agriculture Department estimate did not account for last year's surge in global oil prices that led to more ethanol production. His research found 116 ethanol plants operating in the United States, 79 more under construction, and another 200 planned.

Already, he said, the price for corn has reached 10-year highs. Consequences, he said, could be far-reaching. Since the US corn crop accounts for one-fourth of all grain exports, a rise in price "could create food riots in low-income areas around the world," he said.

Bob Dinneen , president of the Renewable Fuels Association , a Washington- based lobbying group for the ethanol industry, said Brown's concerns were overblown. Dinneen said increased farming of corn could offset much of the increase in demand for ethanol.

Corn production has risen to an estimated 86 million acres in the last year, up from 76 million acres in 2005, largely because of the demand for ethanol, he said.

"I have more faith in the marketplace," Dinneen said.