Meeting for the first time on Japanese soil, Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and President Barack Obama today committed their governments to “a new era in the global fight against climate change” by shifting to low-carbon growth and achieving “a successful outcome” at the UN climate conference next month.

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The very first laptop computer was designed in 1982. It was chunky and boxy and had a phone attached, but where would be now without it, and more importantly, without its creator Bill Moggridge? Where would we be without Herman Miller or Google or Tupperware or Burt Rutan’s privately funded and awesome-looking SpaceShip One? All of these have contributed to our quality of life and have, in the last ten years, been honored with a National Design Award.

The award ceremony took place in late October, but the National Design Museum at Cooper-Hewitt will be commemorating the last decade of the NDA until February, with exhibitions of winning designs as well as workshops in several disciplines like fashion (kids can make their very own Maria Cornejo or Isabel Toledo-inspired outfits), typography design with Hoefler & Frere-Jones and stage design in the style of the Rockwell Group.

Röyksopp’s current album features many collaborations. Their most recent single, “The Girl and The Robot,” pitted the duo against ice princess Robyn. That single’s video is brilliant and can be seen below.

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On the eve of a new Paul Giamatti comedy, COLD SOULS (opens 8/7), and with Sam Rockwell’s MOON in theatres now, I decided to return to an early comedy for these talented actors. It’s SAFE MEN (1998), the first film from writer-director John Hamburg, and it’s … well, it’s the Father of Bromance.

Okay, I should say the Father of Modern Bromance. A simple google search got me to the history of the bromance, wherein references to Han and Chewie and Felix and Oscar (bromance amongst all bromances) set me straight. (See IGN.com’s top ten bromance couples here.) Although – side note – they clearly understand bromance as synonomous to The Buddy Film; I understand it more as The Buddy Comedy. And Modern Bromance? 90s-inspired, Apatow-flavored man-love? The general public may think the Apatow craze spawned movies this summer like (Hamburg’s) I LOVE YOU, MAN and HUMP DAY, but I contend it all started with SAFE MEN.

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It’s the fourth of July, and what better way to celebrate than to watch some French films? (Can I get arrested somewhere in America for saying that?)

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SAN FRANCISCO, California, June 6, 2009 (ENS) – The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments Wednesday on whether the Canadian corporation Barrick Gold will be allowed to construct and operate an open pit gold mine on Mt. Tenabo in Nevada. The mine is planned on lands that are culturally and spiritually significant to the Western Shoshone native people.

The plaintiffs, three tribal groups and two conservation organizations, are seeking a preliminary injuction to stop expansion of an existing Barrick gold mining operation onto Mt. Tenabo, spelled Mt. Denabo by the native people. If the court grants the injunction, the merits of the case will be argued later in U.S. District Court in Nevada.

A group of Western Shoshone people gathers medicinal plants on Mt. Tenabo. (Photo courtesy Global Actions Against Barrick)

Barrick’s existing Cortez gold mine is located 60 miles southwest of Elko, Nevada in Lander County.

According to government documents, the Barrick mine expansion, known as the Cortez Hills Project, would disturb 10 square miles of land.

Barrick Gold plans to blast a new mine pit into Mt. Tenabo nearly two miles long, over a mile wide, and half a mile deep, and in addition construct an underground mine tunneling almost a mile into Mt. Tenabo.

The company plans to construct a large cyanide heap leach processing facility, dump over 1.5 billion tons of mine waste on Mt. Tenabo, and pump over 16.5 billion gallons of groundwater from Mt. Tenabo to keep the pit dry for mining.

Barrick’s pumping of water for gold production could lower the water table 1,600 feet and result in the complete elimination or substantial loss of water in at least 15 springs and seeps and one perennial stream.

Western Shoshone Grandmother Joyce McDade said, “Denabo has significant meaning for Western Shoshone. It means the writing on the rock walls of the mountain [White Cliffs] put there by our Creator.”

“We go to pray to our Creator to give us strength to keep us going. How can we pray to our Creator when the place in being blown up? Water at Mt. Denabo must be protected to sustain life and peace on Mother Earth. Water is sacred. Water is life,” said McDade.

On November 8, 2008, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management approved the construction of the gold mine on Mt. Tenabo. In January, the U.S. District Court in Reno, Nevada denied a preliminary injunction sought by the native people that would have stopped mining operations at Mt. Tenabo.

In bringing the appeal, the plaintiffs, South Fork Band Council of Western Shoshone of Nevada, Te-Moak Tribe of Western Shoshone Indians of Nevada, Timbisha Shoshone Tribe, the Western Shoshone Defense Project, and Great Basin Resource Watch hope the appelate court will overturn the Reno court ruling.

John Hadder of Great Basin Mine Watch said, “The mining industry needs to recognize that there are some places where it is not appropriate to mine. I think that people across the U.S., and around the world, are appalled by the destruction of a sacred site just so Barrick, a multi-national corporation, can make more money.”

“The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has put this Canadian company’s economic interests over the rights of the Western Shoshone who have lived sustainably on these lands for thousands of years,” said Hadder.

“The situation at Mt. Tenabo makes clear the need for reform of the U.S. 1872 Mining Law,” he said.

Hundreds of pages of briefs and thousands of pages of documents have been submitted to the court, but the hearing will last just 30 minutes with each side making its case in 15 minutes.

“An injunction would stop the mine while the case goes back to the district court in Reno. A final decision on the merits could take another year or two,” said attorney for the plaintiffs, Roger Flynn.

“The Ninth Circuit ruling will be critical on the legal issue of whether the BLM has the authority to deny such a destructive mining project in such an important place,” said Flynn.

A Native American ceremony with prayer and song beginning at 7:30 Wednesday morning will precede the hearing.

By Lisa J. Wolf

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WASHINGTON, DC, May 5, 2009 (ENS) – To spur biofuels research and commercialization, President Barack Obama today signed a Presidential Directive establishing a Biofuels Interagency Working Group. He announced his administration’s notice of a proposed rulemaking on a national Renewable Fuels Standard and announced $786.5 million in additional Recovery Act funds for renewable fuel projects.

“We must invest in a clean energy economy that will lead to new jobs, new businesses and reduce our dependence on foreign oil,” said President Obama. “The steps I am announcing today help bring us closer to that goal. If we are to be a leader in the 21st century global economy, then we must lead the world in clean energy technology. Through American ingenuity and determination, we can and will succeed.”

The Biofuels Interagency Working Group will be co-chaired by the secretaries of agriculture and energy and the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency and will operate in cooperation with the National Science and Technology Council’s Biomass Research and Development Board.

This farmer is harvesting rapeseed for canola oil and for biofuel. (Photo courtesy Oak Ridge National Lab)

The Working Group is tasked with developing the nation’s first comprehensive biofuel market development program. It will use existing authorities and identify new policies to support the development of next-generation biofuels, increase flexible fuel vehicle use, and assist in retail marketing efforts.

The Working Group will coordinate infrastructure policies that affect the supply, secure transport, and distribution of biofuels.

And the Working Group will identify new policy options to promote the environmental sustainability of biofuels feedstock production, taking into consideration land use, habitat conservation, crop management practices, water efficiency and water quality, as well as lifecycle assessments of greenhouse gas emissions.

In his directive, the President called on Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack to immediately begin restructuring existing investments in renewable fuels as needed to preserve industry employment; and develop a comprehensive approach to accelerating the investment in and production of American biofuels and reducing the nation’s dependence on fossil fuels.

Secretary Vilsack told reporters on a conference call this morning that the President’s directive creates an “exciting opportunity for USDA.”

“USDA must stimulate investment, persuade existing biorefineries to convert away from petroleum fuel to biofuels, and it’s an opportunity for communities to convert as well,” Vilsack said.

“The directive reflects Obama’s commitment to rural America, he said. “It will create clean jobs, provide additional income opportunities for farmers and ranchers, energy security for every single American.”

“Our responsibility is crafted, directed and shaped not just by this Presidential memo,” said Vilsack, “but also by the energy title of the Farm Bill. Resources are available to farmers to audit their operations on the farm. Steps can be taken to convert to biofuels and away from fossil fuels. Once the audits are finished they can apply to USDA for additional resources to convert their operations to renewable energy. We are a financing mechanism for these changes. First doing the audit, then encouraging farms to move away from dependence on fossil fuel will impact footprint of agriculture generally.”

To create advanced biofuels like green gasoline, diesel, and jet fuels, the Department of Energy will oversee the $786.5 million commercial biorefinery effort. The biomass program will leverage DOE’s national laboratories, universities, and the private sector to help improve biofuels reliability and overcome technical challenges.

The $786.5 million in Recovery Act funding is a mix of new funding opportunities and additional funding for existing projects. More than half the money, $480 million, will fund integrated pilot-scale and demonstration-scale biorefineries, and an additional $176.5 million will fund commercial-scale biorefinery projects.

Fundamental research in key program areas will get $110 million and $20 million will be spent for ethanol research.

NREL Engineer Andy Aden works on a cellulosic ethanol project. (Photo by Scott Bryant Photography courtesy NREL)

“Developing the next generation of biofuels is key to our effort to end our dependence on foriegn oil and address the climate crisis – while creating millions of new jobs that can’t be outsourced,” said Secretary of Energy Steven Chu. “With American investment and ingenuity, and resources grown right here at home, we can lead the way toward a new green energy economy.”

Researchers at the National Renewable Energy Lab have been working on developing biofuels made from nonedible plants like prairie grasses, wood chips and harvested corn and wheat leftovers. They are close to achieving a U.S. Department of Energy goal – producing by 2012 cellulosic ethanol cheap enough to compete with conventional gasoline.

The President also announced the EPA’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on the nation’s first Renewable Fuel Standard. This proposal outlines the EPA’s strategy for increasing the supply of renewable fuels to reach 36 billion gallons by 2022, as required by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007.

Four categories of renewable fuels will be established: cellulosic biofuels; biomass-based diesel; advanced biofuels; and total renewable fuel.

In 2022, the proposal would require 36 billion gallons annually of renewable fuels, of which 16 billion gallons must be cellulosic biofuels; and 1 billion gallons must be of biomass-based diesel. At most 15 billion gallons of the renewable fuel mandate can be met with conventional biofuels, including corn-based ethanol.

Increasing renewable fuels will reduce dependence on foreign oil by more than 297 million barrels a year and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by an average of 160 million tons a year when fully phased in by 2022, the administration estimates.

For the first time, some renewable fuels must achieve greenhouse gas emission reductions compared to the gasoline and diesel fuels they displace. Refiners must meet the requirements to receive credit toward meeting the new standards.

EPA also will conduct peer reviews on the lifecycle-analysis methodology and the results for various fuels and feed-source combinations. Lifecycle refers to the greenhouse gas emissions over the life of the fuels.

“As we work towards energy independence, using more homegrown biofuels reduces our vulnerability to oil price spikes that everyone feels at the pump,” said EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson. “Energy independence also puts billions of dollars back into our economy, creates green jobs, and protects the planet from climate change in the bargain.”

Nathanael Greene, director of Renewable Energy Policy at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said, “The opportunity to review EPA’s proposal will help ensure that developing biofuels won’t mean using our most fragile forests for fuel and that biofuels provide real benefits. We plan to submit comments on what EPA has gotten right and what must be improved to make sure the outcome serves our environmental and energy needs.”

“We must develop biofuels the smart way, and we are encouraged that EPA Administrator Jackson has offered a science-based proposal to get this done,” said Greene. “If we get the rules of the road right through policies such as this one, we can harness the ingenuity of America’s farmers, foresters, and entrepreneurs to create a new generation of biofuels that will help create jobs and reduce our dependence on oil.”

Bob Dinneen, president and chief executive of the Renewable Fuels Association, said, “President Obama is making clear once and for all that biofuels are critical to the nation’s economic, environmental and energy strength. Investments in biofuels, like ethanol, are creating green jobs here at home, reducing America’s foreign oil dependence, and helping to meet our environmental goals.”

“America’s ethanol industry faces an unprecedented set of opportunities as well as challenges,” Dinneen said. “Revolutionary new technologies that turn once thought of waste materials into renewable fuel are very close at hand. These technologies will create the kind of economic and green job opportunities, as well as provide cleaner solutions to petroleum use, that President Obama desires.”

“Yet, uncertainty remains for many of these technologies as unproven science and questionable logic are being used to penalize existing biofuel producers for carbon emissions occurring halfway around the globe for reasons that may have little, or nothing, to do with U.S. biofuel production,” he said.

The ethanol industry is concerned that EPA has attempted to calculate indirect emissions that occur as a result of indirect land use changes from rainforest to biofuels crops, for instance, in the United States as well as internationally.

“The controversial notion of indirect land use changes impacts, including those happening outside the United States, are thought to greatly reduce ethanol’s greenhouse gas benefit,” said Dinneen.

“We welcome an open and robust science-based discussion of the indirect impacts of all fuels,” said Dinneen. “The science of market-mediated, secondary impacts is very young and needs more reliance on verifiable data, and less reliance on unproven assumptions. Done correctly, such an analysis will demonstrate a significant carbon benefit is achieved through the use of ethanol from all sources.”

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MAZAR-e-SHARIF, Afghanistan, July 10, 2008 (ENS) – The wailing of children pierces the air over the tent city on the banks of the Shulgara river, just south of Mazar-e-Sharif. But even that sound may soon be stilled – so many children are dying of dehydration, starvation and disease that families no longer mark the occasion.

“In the past, when a family member died, we would hold a mourning service,” said Mohammad Zaman, who has a tent at the camp. “But now all we can think of is ourselves. No one pays attention to children dying any more.”

With the fierce summer sun sending temperatures over 40 degrees Celsius, life is becoming untenable for the 2,500 families camped out in the desert that borders the river.

The Shulgara has been their only source of potable water since the spring rains failed to arrive. Rivers and brooks have dried up in the scorching heat, and well water levels have sunk to record lows. Livestock are dying due to lack of fodder, while the soaring price of wheat and rice is making it difficult for families to purchase even the most basic foodstuffs.

“We have not been given any assistance,” said Mohammad Zaman. “We drink the river water, but if the government doesn’t do anything, we will all die when winter comes.”

The displaced people brought with them only bags of clothing, food, and other essentials, as well as carpets to sit on. They say they will remain by the river for as long as necessary.

They are receiving some help from the Red Crescent, along with assistance from the government and from local merchants. But they say it has been woefully inadequate.

Afghan man travels by donkey through
Faryab Province. (Photo byAlex Strick
van Linschoten)

Much of Afghanistan has affected by drought this year, and the situation in the northern provinces, especially Jowzjan and Faryab, is approaching disaster.

No one has precise figures on the scale of the problem.

“This year there is a state of emergency,” said Mir Shafiuddin Mirzad, who heads the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization in northern Afghanistan. “But no survey has been done due to the lack of adequate budget funding, so all the figures are based on guesses.”

He added that the lack of reliable survey data was creating serious problems, making it difficult to determine how much aid is needed, and of what type.

“We have no exact information about what kind of threat people are facing, so this could be very dangerous. We’re urging donors to pay more attention to this situation,” said Mirzad.

The figures available so far are worrying.

According to Abdul Haq Shafaq, the governor of Faryab province, more than 100,000 families in this northwestern region are in imminent danger.

“Ninety-eight percent of agriculture and livestock in Faryab has been affected,” he said. “If assistance is not delivered soon, we will have a humanitarian crisis on our hands.”

He said hundreds of people are coming to his office every day in hope of receiving assistance, but he has nothing to offer them.

“We need 120 tonnes of flour immediately to keep people from starvation,” said the governor.

In Sar-e-Pul province, east of Faryab, officials are fearful of food riots.

“People are very hungry,” said Sar-e-Pul governor Sayed Iqbal Munib. “They are leaving their districts to look for food. I am afraid that one day, people will storm in from the villages and take everything from the government offices. The situation is very dangerous.”

An Afghan family on the move in
Badghis (Photo by Juliette Seibold)

Badghis, further to the west, has also been severely affected, according to parliamentarian Azita Rafat. She described an almost total loss of livestock and agricultural crops due to the drought.

“More than 200 families a day are leaving Badghis,” she said. “They are going to other provinces or trying to get into Iran illegally.”

In late June, the UN’s Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Sir John Holmes, paid a visit to Kabul and briefed journalists on the emerging crisis.

“The most serious immediate problem … is food insecurity as a result of the global food price rises, which have had an effect here in Afghanistan, and drought in Afghanistan,” said Holmes.

“I think the government of Afghanistan together with the United Nations and the humanitarian community were quick to recognize that, which is why we issued an appeal for 81 million dollars in January this year. That appeal was well-funded and is enabling us to help around 2.5 million particularly vulnerable people here in Afghanistan,” he said.

“But we also recognize that it was not enough, so we are working together with the government of Afghanistan on a further, larger appeal to meet some of these needs and also to tackle some of the problems facing agriculture in this country,” Holmes said.

Afghanistan’s Ministry of Agriculture has announced an emergency plan to deliver aid to the affected provinces.

“We have asked for 89,000 tonnes of wheat from the international community,” said Sadruddin Safi, head of the ministry’s department of food security. According to Safi, they already have promises of 83,000 tonnes, which means the ministry will be in a position to avert a humanitarian catastrophe.

“The wheat is going to be distributed in the drought-affected provinces for free or in return for labor,” he said. “China has donated 4,380 tonnes, which will be given to affected families in 17 provinces.”

In addition, said Safi, the ministry has purchased 50,000 tonnes of wheat from Pakistan which will be sold at a reduced price.

“We have requested other assistance from the international community through a separate program, and it should arrive by the end of the year. We have a plan to cover more than 6.5 million persons in 2008, which will avert a crisis,” he said.

But these promises ring hollow in the ears of the people most affected by the drought.

“All of my farmlands have dried up,” said Ekramuddin, 54, a farmer in the Dara-e-Suf district of Samangan province. “My wheat plants are destroyed. My animals are dead. I have nothing left, so I am going to Iran to work so that I can send something to my family for the winter.”

Farmers like Ekramuddin have lost any faith that the government will help them.

“There is no news of any assistance,” he said. “I’m going to Iran because I can’t wait any longer.”

Abdul Ghani, a farmer in Sar-e-Pul, echoed Ekramuddin’s complaint.

“The government always makes promises, but the assistance will be delivered to us after we’ve died of starvation,” he said. “What will our dead bodies do with that assistance? We urge the government to help us while we are still alive.”

{This article originally appeared today in Afghan Recovery Report, produced by the Institute for War and Peace Reporting [www.iwpr.net].}

By Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi

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ALBANY, New York, July 9, 2008 (ENS) – Two railways will construct a new $40 million intermodal and automotive rail logistics center at a former rail yard in the towns of Halfmoon, Mechanicville, and Stillwater. Work is expected to begin in the first quarter 2009 and be complete by April 2010.

The new rail terminal in Saratoga County will anchor the western end of Pan Am Southern’s Patriot Corridor, a new high-speed freight rail route between the Capitol Region surrounding Albany and the Boston area that will be activated once track and signal improvements are complete.

This is a great announcement for the Capitol Region and for all of New York State,” said Governor David Paterson. “I want to thank Norfolk Southern and Pan Am Railways for choosing to locate here.”

“This is exactly the sort of smart investment in our transportation infrastructure that we need to make during these tough economic times, and one that will spur further economic development,” the governor said.

“As soaring energy costs have forced businesses to re-think how to transport consumer goods, the rail industry has once again become an increasingly viable and affordable option,” said New York State Senator Joe Bruno, a Republican who encouraged the rail companies to locate in New York.

Rising gasoline and diesel prices
make rail freight an attractive option.
(Photo courtesy Pan Am Railways)

“Transportation by rail is still the most economically efficient way to move freight, and even more so today with ever rising fuel prices,” Bruno said.

The state will contribute $3 million to help build the terminal, Bruno said.

In May, Pan Am Railways and Norfolk Southern announced plans to create a joint venture, called Pan Am Southern.

The key component of Pan Am Southern is the Patriot Corridor, the 155 mile main line track that runs between Mechanicville and Ayer, Massachusetts.

Pan Am Southern also includes 281 miles of secondary and branch lines, including trackage rights, in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, and Vermont.

The new Saratoga County rail logistics center will serve as the primary distribution hub for the Patriot Corridor.

The Pan Am Southern joint venture is subject to the approval of the U.S. Surface Transportation Board, which is expected to issue a decision on the transaction in October.

“On behalf of the Pan Am Southern joint venture, I would like to thank Senator Bruno for his leadership and commitment to bring rail yard operations back to Saratoga County,” said Wick Moorman, Norfolk Southern’s chief executive officer.

“With the demand for moving freight throughout the U.S. and New York’s Capitol Region at unprecedented levels, this rail facility will serve as the premier distribution point for consumer products and finished automobiles for upstate New York and western New England,” said Moorman.

As fuel prices rise, more shippers are turning from truck to rail travel. Moorman said the railway is seeing companies that have not used rail to ship goods in 30 years.

David Fink, Pan Am Railways’ president said, “This new terminal will add much-needed freight capacity to the Capitol Region, and is critical to the success of our Pan Am Southern joint venture.”

Rail officials named companies that are committed to use the new rail system, including automakers Ford, Honda, Mazda, Mercedes Benz and Subaru, and transport companies Hanjin, J.B. Hunt and United Parcel Service.

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WASHINGTON, DC, July 9, 2008 (ENS) – Today’s federal environmental research, development, and monitoring programs are not structured to handle such major problems as global climate change, declines in freshwater, and loss of biodiversity, warns a group of former senior federal officials who want to form a new agency by merging two existing ones.

In an article published in the journal “Science,” the officials propose an independent Earth Systems Science Agency that would be created by merging the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA, and the U.S. Geological Survey, USGS.

Former NOAA administrator D. James Baker and former USGS director Charles Groat, among the article’s seven coauthors, see important synergies in linking the two agencies.

Baker said, “Population pressure, development impact, and resource extraction affect land and sea alike. Just as the science of the Earth is seamless, so should the government responsibility be merged for these separate Earth agencies.”

Groat points to the breadth of capabilities the agency would possess.

A new combined Earth science agency
would treat the planet as a whole.
(Photo courtesy NASA)

“The USGS, in bringing not only its geologic, biologic, hydrologic and geospatial expertise to the understanding of natural systems, but also its research capabilities in energy, mineral, water, and biologic resources, gives the new organization a comprehensive perspective on both environmental and resource systems. If we effectively link these capabilities with those of NOAA, we will have a powerful research institution.”

The authors recommend that no less than 25 percent of the new agency’s budget be devoted to grants, contracts, and cooperative agreements with academic and nonprofit institutions.

“Earth system science merges earth, atmospheric, and ocean science into a panorama of the earth system as it is today and as it will be tomorrow,” said Charles Kennel, former associate administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA, and director of Mission to Planet Earth.

“We need it to predict climate change and its impacts, and to help us mitigate and adapt to other changes that have the potential to affect our quality of life and economic well-being,” Kennel said.

The article, entitled “An Earth Systems Science Agency,” points to the scientific advantages of linking NOAA’s atmospheric and marine programs with the terrestrial, freshwater, and biological programs of the USGS.

According to Donald Kennedy, former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration and past president of Stanford University, “It isn’t often that we are offered a real opportunity to make government work better. But the modest, sensible reorganization proposed here brings a new science-rich focus on some of our biggest contemporary challenges.”

Kennedy stresses the importance of linking the new agency’s activities with the tremendous talent in the nation’s universities, while former presidential science adviser John Gibbons says the new agency’s effectiveness will depend upon the bridges it builds to other federal agencies.

David Rejeski, who worked in both the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the Council on Environmental Quality, emphasizes the importance of setting aside some of the Earth Systems Science Agency’s budget to fund research and development with breakthrough potential.

The paper points to the direct link between research and development and economic growth. The work of NOAA and USGS already fuels a large, multi-billion dollar private sector enterprise.

Mark Schaefer, a former official at the Department of the Interior and the White House science office, said, “Our nation’s research and development enterprise must be better structured and directed if we are to have any chance of solving the tremendous environmental challenges of our time.”

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CHICAGO, Illinois, July 9, 2008 (ENS) – Food and agricultural giant Cargill Tuesday broke ground on a $22 million factory in Chicago to produce plant-based plastics. These polyols can replace petroleum-based chemicals usually used in polyurethane products, such as flexible foam cushioning for furniture, bedding and automotive products.

The privately held, $71 billion Minneapolis-based company says when the new plant comes online in November it will produce Cargill’s BiOH™ brand soybean-based polyols.

“Only two years ago we committed to building a world-class renewable polyols business and to bring a more responsible option to the industry,” said Yusuf Wazirzada, business unit leader for Cargill Biobased Polyurethanes. “We are rapidly delivering on that promise, first by opening a world-class research facility and now by constructing a world-scale manufacturing plant.”

Since going commercial with BiOH polyols in 2005, Cargill has been producing the soy-plastic in smaller quantities. The new manufacturing plant in Chicago will provide a much larger supply of BiOH polyols as a raw material to customers in North America and Europe.

The biobased product’s success required expanding production capabilities at a Cargill site in Brazil to serve the company’s fast-growing Latin American customer base. From September 2007 BiOH polyols have been made at one of Cargill’s existing vegetable oil processing sites in Sao Paulo state.

“We are enthusiastic about providing Latin American foam manufacturers the ability to purchase biobased polyols from a Latin American manufacturing facility,” said Etore Silva, manager of the Cargill plant located in the city of Mairinque.

The Amazon rainforest is cleared for
soya cultivation in the municipality
of Belterra in State of Para, Brazil.
This is close to the port at Santarem,
where Cargill has a soya export
facility. (Photo by Leonardo Freitas)

Greenpeace and other environmental groups have objected to Cargill’s soy-based business in Brazil, saying that the Amazon rainforest should not be converted to agricultural production. One of the last large rainforests in the world, the Amazon supports the survival of a wide variety of unique plants and animals and contributes to the stability of the global climate.

Rising international demand for soya has led many farmers to drive deforestation to make way for soya cultivation, Greenpeace says. In 2006, the campaign group demonstrated against Cargill and published “Eating up the Amazon,” a report on its investigation into the links between soya in the supply chains of international food companies and the destruction of the Amazon rainforest.

This report prompted a two-year moratorium from July 2006 on trade in soya grown on newly deforested land.

But Greenpeace says two years have not been long enough to establish permanent solutions to halt deforestation related to soya farming, so the group lobbied for an extension.

The Brazilian Association of Vegetable Oil Industries, or Abiove, which represents soya traders, has recently been under pressure from producers who wanted to weaken the moratorium by allowing soya plantations in areas not permitted under the existing agreement, Greenpeace claims.

Despite the pressure, in a press conference held in Brasilia in June, Abiove confirmed that it will back the moratorium for another year.

“Abiove’s decision shows that it is possible for a leading agri-business company to ensure food production without destroying forests,” said Paulo Adario, Greenpeace Amazon campaign coordinator.

Brazilian Environment Minister Carlos Minc told reporters, “The moratorium is a successful initiative by civil society and the soya industry. The federal government is entering the process now and is committed to register and license all rural properties in the Amazon biome. Inspired by the success of this initiative, the Brazilian government is negotiating similar approaches with the timber and beef industries.”

Now Amazon soya production will be the basis not only for food, but also for Cargill’s new high-volume Chicago polyol plant.

Cargill says it shares Greenpeace’s Amazon conservation goals, but does not agree with the campaign group’s means to achieve them.

Cargill contends that soy occupies less than one percent of the land in the Amazon biome, and most of that soy is grown on the fringes of the Amazon biome in the transitional area between the Cerrado and the forest.

“Despite Greenpeace’s assertions that there should be no agricultural production within certain lines on a map, not all lands within those lines are equally valuable from an environmental standpoint,” the company said in a 2006 statement. “Agricultural production is appropriate in some areas.”

“In forested areas, producers must set aside 80 percent of their landholdings to be allowed to cultivate the remaining 20 percent,” Cargill said. “The Brazilian Forest Code also requires landholders to maintain properly vegetated riparian corridors as areas of permanent protection.”

“BiOH polyols provide a responsible choice in raw materials for furniture cushioning, bedding foams, automotive seats, and building insulation,” Cargill said on Tuesday.

A preliminary life cycle analysis indicates that manufacturing BiOH polyols results in 36 percent less global warming emissions and requires 61 percent less non-renewable energy than traditional petroleum-based polyols, the company said.

Because solar energy is used to grow the soybeans, Cargill says, “For every one million pounds of BiOH polyols that replace petroleum polyols, 2,200 barrels of crude oil are saved.”

Businesses currently using this product in their foam cushioning include furniture companies such as Lane, Klaussner, LEE Industries, Norwalk, Bauhaus, and Precedent, sold through leading retailers such as Crate & Barrel, Macys and Norwalk-The Furniture Idea. Eco Platinum Plus™ carpet cushion sold through Home Depot is made with BiOH polyols.

In the automotive sector, BiOH materials will be in the seats of the 2009 Ford Escape.

“Given that the global polyurethane market for polyols is greater than 10 billion pounds,” Cargill said Tuesday, “BiOH polyols can have a significant impact on reducing crude oil consumption while using only a small percentage of global vegetable oil stocks.”

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