INDIANAPOLIS – Long-term investments often earn the greatest returns. For many years, Hoosier farmers have given to the Indiana FFA as an investment in agriculture’s future.

Indiana FFA has more than 14,000 members, providing high school-aged students with challenging opportunities to develop leadership skills, problem-solving experience and widening careers prospects. Founded in 1929, Indiana FFA has 233 chapters across the state and is led by a seven-member leadership team of recently graduated students elected during its state convention. These young leaders will travel to FFA chapters throughout Indiana in a flex-fuel vehicle driven with the help of corn and soybean farmers.

For several years, the Indiana Corn Marketing Council (ICMC) has sponsored the FFA vehicle, which runs on E85 – a blended fuel of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent petroleum. This allows the FFA’s leadership team to promote corn-based ethanol fuel while traveling throughout the state.

During the recent Indiana FFA Convention in Noblesville, Ind., the Indiana Soybean Alliance (ISA) donated a set of Goodyear Eagle® Enforcer All Weather™ tires made with soybean oil in the tire tread compound. Replacing petroleum-based oils with soybean oil gives the tire tread improved cold-weather flexibility with better traction in wet and snowy conditions.

This will also allow the FFA team to promote the versatility of soybeans, which are an ingredient in many products, as well as co-products of soybeans, like soybean oil.

“We’re very happy to partner with Indiana FFA, and we’re very happy to share the message about the benefits of using soybeans,” said Muncie, Ind., farmer Jenna Scott, chair of ISA’s sustainability and value creation committee. “With more than 14,000 members in Indiana high schools, FFA can spread the message that soybean oil is a great replacement for many industrial items. Soybean oil makes these products more bio-based, and it increases the value of Indiana soybeans.”

Goodyear began exploring the use of soybean oil in select tires through a research partnership between Goodyear and the United Soybean Board (USB), the national soybean checkoff program. Partnerships like this can create demand for crops grown by Indiana soybean farmers. Goodyear tires containing soybean oil have been on the nationwide market since 2017.

 “Goodyear’s use of soybean oil is an example of how the company is using sustainable materials in their products,” said Tom Griffiths, a Kendallville, Ind., farmer and a USB director. “With the use of soybean oil, they are replacing petroleum-based oils with a bio-based oil. The oil they are using is oil extracted from American-grown soybeans.”

FFA State President Kaitlyn Maruszewski, who is from a farm in Tipton County, is excited to share the soybean and corn story with chapters and members throughout Indiana.

“As state officers, we spend thousands of miles traveling to meet Indiana FFA members and partners across the state,” Maruszewski said. “Knowing the tires on our vehicle include soy-based technology is a powerful reminder of the innovation happening within Indiana agriculture. We’re thankful to the Indiana Soybean Alliance for supporting our travels and helping us share the story of soy with students and communities along the way.”

ISA Board Director David Ring, a farmer from Huntingburg, Ind., is a former FFA adviser at Southridge High School in Dubois County. Ring attended the tire donation ceremony at the Indiana FFA Convention. “When this project came before our board, it wasn’t just a simple approval; it was an enthusiastic ‘yes’ from every farmer in the room,” Ring said. “As growers, we pour our hearts into our fields, and seeing our crops utilized in cutting-edge industrial technology like Goodyear’s soy-infused rubber compounds. It is incredibly rewarding. By funding and approving this project, the ISA board is proud to ensure that our young leaders could be riding on the very innovation their parents, neighbors and communities grow.”