WINNIPEG (Staff) – Canadian participants at the Straw to Gold symposium here said this country lags behind when it comes to having a strategy for finding new uses for agricultural products.
Here is what other countries are doing:
Australia
David Paul is the managing director of a company building the first agri-pulp plant in Australia. The $60 million plant will use wheat straw to produce a high quality pulp for paper near Adelaide. It will be running by mid-1997.
Although the government has not given money to the project, Paul said it considers the plant to have national importance. The government is also expected to release its strategy on wood and paper, which Paul said will raise the profile of the non-wood fibre industry.
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Paul said the Australian government gives tax breaks for research and development. Two particleboard plants using straw are being built in the next year, and flax and hemp projects are also being considered.
United States
The Alternative Agricultural Research and Commercialization Center is an independent unit of the United States department of agriculture that takes its direction from the private sector.
Director Bruce Crain said since 1993, it has put more than $22 million (U.S.) into 54 projects, matched by more than $93 million (U.S.) from private companies. These include things like windshield washer solvent from corn, particleboard from wheat, and highway sign posts made from straw and recycled plastic.
The centre also tries to educate banks, people with capital and the public about new uses. It’s sponsoring a one-hour television special on the subject.
According to Crain, a major hurdle is finding out what works, what research has already been done, and who is doing what.
The Netherlands
After the United States, this tiny country has the largest number of exports in non-food agricultural products.
Albert Eenink, the director of the country’s Institute for Agrotechnological Research, said the country has placed a high priority on research.
Five years ago, the government started the institute, which is paid for by industry. It has gone from 90 to 450 employees in that time.
Eenink said the institute will only research cheap raw materials that have a consistent level of quality that can be made into high-value products. He said it doesn’t invest in biofuel because it cannot compete with other fuels.
The institute has made things like plastics, coatings, inks, lubricants, paper, cellulose and pesticides from straw, potatoes, wheat, corn, oilseeds, hemp, caraway and Jerusalem artichokes.
It works with industries that make chemicals, cars, film, paper, packaging and food, to name a few.
Eenink said the institute has made glue from gluten found in cereals. From carvone, one of the essential oils in caraway, the institute found a sprout inhibitor that slows cell division, making it easier to store potatoes.
European Union
The European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy has helped farmers get into the business of selling crops for industrial uses.
Barry Williams of the Organization of Markets in Crop Products Directorate in Belgium said under the voluntary land set-aside program, designed to decrease stocks of grain in member countries, farmers received compensation to take 15 percent of their land out of production.
They could grow crops used for things other than food or feed. Last year, most of the set-aside land was seeded with oilseeds for biodiesel.
Williams told the conference that countries need an infrastructure to introduce farmers to the non-food industry, and public relations to dispel myths and make people aware of the benefits to the environment and economy.
