by Rod Nickel and Karl Plume (Reuters) … Botanists, businessmen, farmers and federal lawmakers, they all gathered to peer at the waist-high plant usually considered a pest and uprooted on sight because of its foul odor, toxicity and the grim taste it leaves in the milk of grazing cattle.
This was a new version created by gene-editing, though. The compound that made it stinky and poisonous in large doses was suppressed, leaving an oilseed crop that its backers say could help the world transition to a lower-carbon economy via biofuels, as well as meet growing demand for livestock feed.
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It is among a handful of crops that could provide alternatives to the world’s most widely used oilseeds, soybeans and canola, crushed to produce oil used in cooking and biofuels, plus high-protein meal for pigs and chickens.
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The new candidates, which include carinata and camelina – known as false flax – also represent potential “cover crops”, off-season sources of revenue for farmers to help insulate them from market downturns.
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The company expects plantings of up to 1,000 acres this fall, swelling up to 3 million acres by 2030, saying gene-editing is more accepted by consumers than genetic modification, which introduces new genes.
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While demand for oilseeds is rising, it is tough for niche crops to break through as they must meet tough regulatory standards, for biofuels in particular, and be produced at scale to be commercially viable. Scaling up production can take years, requiring financial commitment and risk for both the developers and the farmers who grow the new crops.
Yet the companies behind covercress and carinata spy an opportunity as governments from Canada and California to Europe impose mandates to reduce the carbon-intensity of fuel in an effort to meet stringent climate goals.
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This year, for the first time, Argentine farmer Horacio Merialdo plans to sow carinata, a towering plant crowned with yellow flowers, another new oilseed hoping to make it big.
Merialdo said he would plant carinata in the off-season from growing soybeans, and its deep roots would carve channels that allow rain to seep deep into the soil, and stop weeds flourishing, benefiting the later soybean crops.
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Niche crops’ use in biofuels is so far limited. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said it was reviewing one fuel facility’s request for approval of carinata as a credit-generating feedstock under the Renewable Fuel Standard. Camelina is already approved.
Covenant Energy will produce renewable diesel from canola at its planned Saskatchewan refinery, but the facility will also be able to use carinata and camelina, CEO Josh Gustafson said.