Plant Power; Soybeans Play Big Role In Major Iowa Show

We are less than one week out from the 2022 Farm Progress Show over in Boone Iowa and exhibitors are already working hard to bring the show to life. This year, exhibitors can expect to see that life be fueled by soybeans.

And yes, you did read that sentence correctly.

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Rob Ewoldt is the Iowa Soybean Association President, which is playing a big role in this year’s show.

All the equipment here at the show will be powered by B 15 biodiesel. Biodiesel is a product that was developed 25-30 years ago with help from checkoff dollars. So, at the Soybean Association, we're really trying to emphasize the farmer.

Everything you see running at the Farm Progress Show this year will be run by soybean fuel, everything besides six forklifts. Those forklifts have blue backs and are electric. They will be on display for exhibitors to view.

But that’s not the only place soybean products will be on display at the show.

In the Varied Industries Tent, which is the big main tent near the show grounds the Iowa Soybean Association in partnership with Iowa State University; put down a bunch of asphalt about acres worth of asphalt made in part with soybean oil.

And on Wednesday, the Iowa Soybean Association and the Farm Progress Show staff held a ribbon cutting for the latest edition of the Farm Progress Showgrounds.

The project was a quick one. It was first proposed in April, the asphalt was poured in July, and today it’s ready for visitors from all over the world to check out as they walk through the one-acre long tent.