COVER STORY | Funded by the Illinois Soybean Checkoff
Biodiesel can improve soybean growers’ resumes when it comes to sustainability for end use customers.
Driving soy demand, literally Why the case for biodiesel advantages must begin at home with soy growers By Kayla Hedrick
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customer walks into an established, yet popular restaurant and asks the owner to sit down with him and have a bite. The owner politely declines, remarking he doesn’t eat the food there. Perplexing, right? Someone who promotes a product they refuse to use? "That’s the same feeling diesel users get when they hear a farmer say they do not use biodiesel," remarks Jeff Lynn, a soybean grower from Oakford, Illinois. Lynn has used biodiesel on his farm since it first became available
14 November 2020
more than 20 years ago. Within the last decade, he bumped his use to B20, a blend of 80-percent petroleum diesel and 20-percent biodiesel, year-round. “There are just a number of benefits to use biodiesel on your farm, ranging from economic to environmental,” says Lynn. “It’s time we champion a great product and something that adds to our bottom line.” Fifth-generation grower and Illinois Soybean Association (ISA) director Elliott Uphoff agrees.
"I think farmers should consider using a product we grow for our own farm use," says Uphoff. “I think it’s time farmers take another look at biodiesel.” The use and promotion of biodiesel is felt throughout soy’s value chain from the soybean farmers producing the raw materials to end use markets for soybeans like livestock and the food industry. Both Lynn and Uphoff mentioned there are a number of direct and indirect benefits for farmers when using biodiesel. The first is seen in the pocketbook. Economic Returns As the largest growing soybean oil market in the last decade, biodiesel has brought tangible returns to farmers. Biodiesel’s demand for soybean oil grew more
than 300-percent in just 10 years, quickly rising as a significant user of soy. “Biodiesel adds around 13-percent to the price we receive for our soybeans,” Lynn explains. “Fleets across the country are using biodiesel year-round and that is driving this growth in income for us as soybean farmers.” Biodiesel is the second largest market for soybean oil, behind the food industry – a market that has declined in recent years because of health concerns around trans fats. Biodiesel’s ability to absorb excess oil makes it an economic driver for soybean farmers now and into the future. Outside of the return on soybean’s price per bushel, biodiesel is often found cheaper than its
Photos: (All courtesy of United Soybean Board or Soy Checkoff)
