By Dusty Sonnenberg, CCA, Field Leader, a mission of the Ohio Soybean Council and Soybean Check-off

The United Soybean Board (USB) accomplishes its mission by delegating initiatives to completely different working teams. The Innovation and Technology Demand Committee is a type of teams that’s targeted on ensuring sources are directed to initiatives that create new makes use of and generate demand for soybeans. Dave Dotterer is an Ohio farmer from Wayne County and serves on the USB Innovation and Technology Demand Committee.

“One of our success stories is a new commercialized hardwood plywood that uses a soy-based adhesive instead of a formaldehyde-based product,” stated Dotterer. “Another product is a new bio-based firefighting foam made from soybean meal flour. A lot of the firefighting foams currently in use seem to be causing cancer. This soy-based product will not cause cancer.”

“Other products include SYNlawn® artificial turf grass, which is made with a a soy-based backing. There is a Rust-Oleum® soy-based wood stain. Goodyear® tires has a soy-based weather ready assurance tire,” stated Dotterer. There are a number of traces of the tires for passenger autos which have tread created from a soy-based oil materials and there are actually some semi-truck tires made with a soy-based oil. By 2040 they need their tires to be 100% from soy-based oil.”

As a results of USB’s partnership with Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, 4 of the nation’s fleets have switched to tires made with soy-based oil: New York City; Cobb County, Georgia; Washington, D.C.; and Madison, Wisconsin. Soy check-off funds have been instrumental in supporting Goodyear’s analysis and growth in addition to in educating main fleets about the advantages of U.S. Soy in tires. City transit buses are one of many eight selections that Goodyear provides with a sustainable soybean oil compound. The majority of Goodyear Metro Miler™ G152 and G652 tires now use soybean oil to displace petroleum whereas delivering the identical efficiency advantages.

Product concepts and funding selections are made on account of the Innovation and Technology Demand committee brainstorming. “Some of the ideas come from talking and bouncing ideas off each other. We then take those ideas and look for firms to explore their potential development,” stated Dotterer. “Sometimes the ideas come to us. One time someone from our committee was in New York City for a clean fuels meeting and in individual came to ask if there was an opportunity to develop a soy based firefighting foam because they needed a practice foam. That is how that product originated. Sometimes people come to us with an idea and request funds. Often our funding decisions are based on the feasibility of the idea and the amount of soy that will be used.”