Marty’s Blog

Marty Ross

Marty Ross grows soybeans as well as other crops and poultry at his family farm near Delmar, Del. As a director to the United Soybean Board, Marty is one of 68 U.S. soybean farmers appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture to invest soybean checkoff funds. Farmers are the sole source of these checkoff funds. Because of the potential for biobased products to create new markets for soybeans, U.S. soybean farmers have invested millions of dollars to research, test and promote biobased products. Marty has served on the USB New Uses Committee that directs these farmer checkoff funds toward work with industry to develop biobased products ranging from adhesives, coatings, printing inks, lubricants, plastics, fibers, solvents and much more. In December 2009, farmer leaders tapped Marty to chair the New Uses committee.

January 2010

It is amazing to consider how far the biobased industry has come in the last decade. In 2000, few people had heard of biobased products and even fewer companies made them. Now there are thousands of biobased products available from companies across the nation. And, government procurement programs are helping lead their use. The 2002 Farm Bill forged the legislation that calls on the Federal government to buy biobased. Furthermore, President Obama’s new Executive Order references biobased products as it sets sustainability goals for Federal agencies and focuses on making improvements in their environmental, energy and economic performance. Federal agencies have set goals under Executive Order 13514 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets; increase energy efficiency; reduce fleet petroleum consumption; conserve water; reduce waste; support sustainable communities; and leverage Federal purchasing power to promote environmentally-responsible products and technologies. Glad there are lots of biobased products available to help meet those goals. U.S. farmers like me planted more than 77 million acres of soybeans last year. We are eager to get back into the fields this spring to grow the abundant supply of soybeans to simultaneously produce food for humans, feed for livestock and ingredients for biobased products.

December 2009

Welcome! I am delighted to introduce the United Soybean Board’s updated and expanded www.soybiobased.org website. We hope you will come back to this site many times as we plan to continually update it with new case studies on how biobased products are working for real people like you along with information about government programs that call for the use of biobased products. You can also come to our site to get the latest news about the sustainability of soybeans that farmers like me grow as well as the efforts of biobased manufacturers to offer even more environmental benefits. And of course, let us know what’s on your mind about biobased products. We look forward to hearing from you.

U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon Features Biobased Products. – University and college teams have traveled across the nation to compete in the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Solar Decathlon on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. At least four used products made from soybeans to boost their chances in the contest of cutting-edge energy efficiency and renewable energy innovation for homes. Learn more.