Illinois soybean farmers and ISA Soy Ambassadors Gary Berg and Drew DeSutter are with eight other U.S. soybean farmers and United Soybean Board (USB) directors from eight states as part of USB's "See for Yourself Tour." The tour kicked off in St. Louis this week.
Drew reports, "The first day began with presentations on checkoff dollars in work in four key areas: domestic marketing and board initiatives, new uses, production and communication. Rick Stern, the USB audit and evaluation chair, stated that every dollar farmers invested in the soybean checkoff yielded a return of $6.40 over their five-year analysis...
After the presentations, we traveled to American River Transportation Company/ADM for a barge tour. The ship we toured had two, 3,000 horsepower engines and was considered a medium size ship. In one day, ships generally use about as many gallons of fuel as they have horsepower; that's a lot of biodiesel!
Our next stop was INX, the third largest ink producer in North America, using more than 200,000 bushels of soybeans in the process. INX ink is applied to everyday consumer products, such as cereal boxes and soda cans. In order to match ink colors to the desired order, a skilled employee mixes different ink colors, and through trial and error, arrives at a color that is identical to the order.
Our last stop was at Lambert International Airport, a huge supporter of renewable fuels. Since 1998, the airport has used a B20 blend (20 percent biodiesel) on airport equipment. After a brief presentation, we were able to take a look at the different machines used to maintain functioning runways; a favorite amongst the farmers!
Seeing these three businesses rely on soybeans in their daily operation helps show the importance of soybean farmers' ability to connect from our rural farms to a large city such as St. Louis."
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