KC Sheperd, Farm Director, is visiting with the Director of the United Soybean Board and U.S. Soybean Export Council, Lance Rezac, about innovation within the U.S. soybean industry.
Rezac said he recently traveled to Kenya with the U.S. Soybean Export Council to help promote U.S. soy on the trade mission.
“They had a ban on GMO in Kenya,” Rezac said. “Wouldn’t buy it, couldn’t let their farmers plant it, and they elected a new president, and the second day in office, he said, ‘I am a scientist, I am going with the science, and we are going to lift our GMO ban,’”
U.S. soy is working on a number of new, innovative things, Rezac said, one of those being a biodegradable plastic made out of soybean oil.
“I think that could be a really big market for soybean oil,” Rezac said. “Everybody in the country wants soybean oil to replace petroleum oil, and we could do it if we had the supply, but you know, there is such a huge demand.”
Rezac said soybean oil is also being used in artificial turf, Goodyear tires, and Sketchers shoes. Soybeans are a versatile crop, Rezac added.
“Anything you can make with petroleum oil, I believe you can make with soybean oil,” Rezac said.
Rezac farms in northeast Kansas said soybeans in the area yielded about half of a regular crop due to dry conditions.
“It just didn’t rain in August at all for us,” Rezac said. “I drove through western Kansas in August, and those guys out there are in really bad shape. There is a big grain deficit area out there. During harvest, they were trying to get grain shipped west just so that feedlots have their feed.”
Soybeans are tough and versatile, Rezac said, but they cannot go without rain.
