Yeah, big deal. But what about all the carbon from foreign food imports? And B20 from soy - how many children will starve? And just because no other country does these things doesn't make this leadership. It's just back door PR. And isn't this company name misleading?

Sulleny, i'm no big fan of crop based biofuels, but no one is likely to starve to death because the did not eat enough hydrogenated vegetable oil, french fries, etc! In fact, greater oil seed production will increase the supply of meal (~80% of the soy bean by weight), thereby reducing the cost of feeding livestock, other things equal.

Years ago vegetable oil was a waste product that the large grain and seed processors did not know what to do with so they invented hydrogenated oil, and heart disease has been a huge beneficiary of that effort.

Now, people might starve because carbohydrates from corn and similar crops are too expensive due to high oil prices and fuel ethanol production, but this argument does not apply to oil seed crops.

Having said that, we would all be better off if all biofuels including biodiesel were produced from fuel crops and waste biomass, and biobutanol replaced ethanol as a fuel additive and supplement.

That's right guys. Because it isn't perfect we should do nothing. Excellent.

I am convinced that they could come up with a perfectly clean fuel/energy and many would say "yes but they have fifty employee's and all are exhaling CO2".

Those supporting corn, soy & other bio-diesel products, you better listen up to what third world countries are saying about carbon credits & using land to grow bio-fuel products. CC & bio-fuels are new-fangled ways of raping the third world.

Corn bio-fuel have already raised corn prices badly. & bio-fuel corn has already doubled soy prices. Soy bio-fuel will raise prices even more than corn & directly cut tropical forests down.

Don't be too self-righteously ecological while your stressing third & fourth world nations.

I guess Safeway gets it's soybean oil at wholesale prices...

...maybe it's a plot to drive up food prices and thus increase the absolute value of their measley 2% margins.

...It might be PR that costs them very little.

...or perhaps they just want to do what they can.

Re: more efficient stores and solar power, way to go Safeway! Given where energy prices are likely to go, good business as well as green. Hopefully, the biodiesel can come from algae at some point in the near future.

Neil....Yes, sustainable & ecological Safeway efforts are good, except for bio-fuels.

The problem with bio-fuels is the incredible amount of land bio-fuels must use to replace the equally incredible fossil fuel energy in billions of gallons of gasoline. So much energy is in 1 gallon of gasoline, that we have merrily wasted gasoline's plenty in inefficient & totally heavy vehicles. We compound that inefficiency by mainly transporting only one person 7 to 20 miles down the road. Bio-fuel land usage is ravenous trying to cope with our totally inefficient transportation method. & third & fourth world nations are bearing the brunt of our inefficiencies.

Safeway's helpful ways of being ecological & sustainable are being crushed with bio-fuel PR flack.

Food crop based bio fuels are a big concern driving up the cost of food, also greenhouse induced climate change will compound the world food shortage.
This will hit the poor first and hard. The rest of us will probably burn more calories complaining about the cost of motoring.
There are likely to be waste and byproduct oppportunities though and it would be sensible to explore the oppportunities for 'scientific purposes'
And I dont mean Japanese style.
All discussion is good get it up and keep the public informed and aware.
So as I'm reminded often (sic): Cheer up! you can always serve as a bad example.

Cheer Up! We are bad examples.

How much cheerier would we be if we were good examples? Start feather footing people! Take your inefficient & totally heavy vehicle & feather foot it. Like me, you can reduce fuel consumption 10+%. If only 10% more people feather footed their vehicles, enough fossil fuel would be saved to MATCH the present fossil fuels displaced by bio-fuels. & if everyone feather footed...then we could really cheer!

Or get a 40 to 45 MPG vehicles. Later, get an EV.

Yeah, better to be a good examples than bad examples.

Biodiesel made from soy oil DOES NOT DRIVE UP THE COST OF FOOD!

Soy oil has been a waste product for decades. Well it was a waste product before it got turned into a 'food' by creating hydrogenated 'soy margarine' -- which is very bad for you.

Turning soy beans into soy flour for human food, and making diesel out of the oil is a big win for all of us.

of course it drives up the cost of food.. fats are an ESSENTIAL part of the human diet. The people affected are only the poor.. so who cares?

If you only make $300 a year you should get a better job so you could afford to properly feed yourself and your 12 kids.. Oh yes, they should start rioting soon.

Hi Herm...Hope you're kidding(think you are). Lots of rich people think exactly the way your post stated.

& Oy Vei is obviously wrong.

I never extract the oil from soy before cooking or making tofu, Maybe the processed food co's do. Simply not not possible in my kitchen.

Herm,

Clearly you haven't bothered to educate yourself about the soy bean industry in US.

Try doing a little research before posting -- you may wind up looking a lot less foolish.

litesong,

98% of the soy beans grown in the US are ground into meal and then fed to animals.

I tried to post the link to this fact but the anti-spam filter won't let me.

Google will find it for you. Or go directly to soyatech(dot)com and look it up for yourself.

I'm not a vegetarian myself, I do like them, but can hardley ever eat a whole one.
Not hard to agree though, feeding grain to animals is very inefficient in calorie conversion compared to humans eating same grains directly.
Now it's a well known fact in the horse industry that , calorie substitution by vegetable oils can quickly provide a lot of energy without adding either bulk and large digester "hay or grass bellies", or slowly metabolised fat.
So provides lean, high energy status.
Think: better to fuel up with 50 litres liquid than 5 ton of sawdust?
Say energy that is otherwise suplied by carbohydrate sugars, and enzyme? conversion.
The issue here is not whether animals should eat grain or we should go vegetarians, that for another day, but whether the oils, in his instance are utilized by animals as food.
The answer is yes.

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