Helping shift the United States to an agricultural-based economy has taken a life of its own at Iowa State University Extension’s Center for Industrial Research and Service (CIRAS). Since 2002, students, faculty, and staff have been working to develop the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) BioPreferred program, which was implemented to promote the increased purchase and use of biobased products.
The program recently reached a major milestone with the announcement of product labeling in January. Up to that point, the center was focused on building the program’s infrastructure, including product testing methods, informational databases, and online resources. Now those involved will continue to develop standards for managing the process to get a product accepted into the program.
“One of our primary goals with this program is to help people make informed decisions when they are looking at different products to buy,” said Steve Devlin, the CIRAS program director for BioPreferred. “Through the BioPreferred program and our labeling system, we are saying to consumers that there is some information available on this product that might not be available on a different product, and they can now take those details into consideration.”
To develop the program, CIRAS has used an interdisciplinary approach, hiring more than 100 students from across campus who are studying everything from engineering, agricultural business, finance, meteorology, biology, foreign languages, to design.
Ansel Chin, senior in mechanical engineering, first got involved in BioPreferred after being introduced to it by a fellow classmate and friend who works with the program. “When I heard about the work going on CIRAS, I was amazed by how it has potential in helping the environment.” Chin helps maintain the database of companies with biobased products, answering questions that manufacturers and the general public have about the program.
He is interested in exploring renewable and sustainable energy after graduation, and the BioPreferred program offers him some insight into how the industry operates. One of the biggest challenges he faces is communicating the definition of biobased products to companies that aren’t using the same baseline as the program. “It can be frustrating for a company that finds out their product doesn’t have the minimum percentage of biobased content to qualify,” he said. “But we see it as an opportunity to explain the program and the requirements, which helps everyone get on the same page.”
The requirements Chin is referring to include evaluating a product to determine what percentage of organic carbon is derived from biorenewable resources. Each product that is submitted to the program falls into a category, or a new one is created if necessary, and must meet specifications to be part of the program.
To develop the categories and get the initial group of companies into the program, more than 1,000 biobased products have been processed through the BioPreferred program. Associate Scientist Glenn Norton oversees the biobased content testing, which involves sending samples to commercial testing laboratories and once the tests are complete, managing the results. Working with ASTM, an organization that was recently selected as the third-party certifier for the BioPreferred program, Norton helped develop a written test method that standardized the carbon isotope analysis done at ASTM. He also acts as a resource both internally and externally for anyone with questions about biobased content.
Norton says he gets satisfaction from playing a role in the promotion of biobased products. “This is just one step being taken to replace petroleum-based carbon with biorenewable carbon in commercial products,” he said. “It can help us get to a more sustainable future.”
Now that the labeling program is in place, CIRAS will continue to maintain and add to the database that holds more than 22,000 different products and just over 2,300 different manufacturers currently participating in the program. With this information, the organization also acts as a valuable resource for USDA.
New manufacturers will submit an application through the USDA’s BioPreferred website, and after CIRAS conducts a thorough review to validate the organization, companies will submit a product sample to ASTM for testing. Once a manufacturer passes testing, CIRAS will issue the authorization to use the BioPreferred label. CIRAS is currently developing an auditing system for companies who are already in the program.
As the BioPreferred program expands, the hope is that as more people use these products and demand increases, the economy will have more “green” jobs and there will be new markets for farmers, manufacturers, and vendors. Additionally, it could help increase the use of renewable resources, better manage the carbon cycle, and may contribute to reducing adverse environmental and health impacts.