URBANDALE, Iowa — The Iowa Soybean Assoc. (ISA) board of directors is calling on state soybean growers to join them in making this year’s soybean harvest part of the solution to world hunger. ISA board members are donating the cash equivalent of 21 acres of soybeans to the World Soy Foundation, which will use the proceeds to support soy-based nutrition programs in developing countries where hunger and malnutrition are widespread.

One acre of soybeans, approximately 42 bushels, can be used to make more than 2,500 gallons of soymilk or more than 40,000 eight-ounce servings. When converted into soybean oil and soy flour, there is enough high-quality fat and protein to meet the full caloric needs for 80 people for a whole month, and that’s a conservative estimate. The entire Iowa Soybean Board donation can be equated to 840,000 eight-ounce servings of soy milk or a month’s caloric needs for 1,680 people.

Iowa soybean growers and their peers across the nation have been instrumental in the creation of the World Soy Foundation (WSF), a 501(c)3 charitable organization. Roy Bardole of Rippey serves as vice chair and Roy Arends of Alexander has also served on the WSF board since its inception. WSF works with private voluntary and nongovernmental organizations to deliver soy protein and nutrition education to people who need it around the world. Projects sponsored by the World Soy Foundation include complementary foods for children aged six to 36 months, school feeding programs and soy nutritional services.

WSF is different from the World Initiative for Soy in Human Health (WISHH) program that U.S. soybean growers also support. While some of the work WISHH did in its early years was humanitarian in nature, WSF expands on that experience, according to WISHH Executive Director Jim Hershey.

To learn more about ISA, visit www.iasoybeans.com and for more on WSF, go to www.worldsoyfoundation. org or contact Karen Edwards at 703-281-7600 or at karen@kcegroup.com

ASA welcomes decision on LibertyLink beans

ST. LOUIS, Mo. — The American Soybean Assoc. (ASA) praised the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) for issuing a positive safety opinion on the LibertyLink soybean (A2704-12) from Bayer CropScience. ASA feels this a critical milestone in the European Union (EU) approval process that moves closer the commercialization of an additional biotech-enhanced soybean seed trait for United States producers.

ASA stated the European Union (EU) imports about 95 percent of the whole soybeans processed in the EU and about 70 percent of the soybean protein meal consumed in the EU. Soybean protein meal is an important part of poultry, swine and other livestock feeds in addition to soybeans having numerous other consumer and industrial uses.

The LibertyLink trait is resistant to Liberty, a postemergence contact herbicide that controls grass and broadleaf weeds, and will provide a new in-crop herbicide option for soybean growers. LibertyLink soybeans are fully approved for food, feed and cultivation in the United States and Canada.

ASA has been consulting with Bayer CropScience to ensure regulatory approvals also are being sought in all major soy export markets that have biotech approval processes. To date, LibertyLink soybeans are fully approved for importation into Australia, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Taiwan and South Africa, and for food use in Russia. Bayer CropScience expects to receive full import approval in the EU, China and other key export countries prior to planned commercialization in 2009. Until the required approvals are obtained, Bayer CropScience is implementing stewardship practices to ensure that all seed and grain produced during seed increase activities is contained and controlled until the targeted commercial launch of the product.

USDA gives $1.2 million to Iowa businesses

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A company that wants to sell goat meat to grocery stores and restaurants and another that hopes to market oil-roasted soybean and sweet corn products are among 13 companies to receive federal grants Tuesday to help develop and promote their business.

The federal government handed out $1.2 million Sept. 18 through USDA to help give several Iowa ag-related businesses a boost. The Value Added Producer Grants through USDA Rural Development is designed to help businesses that take raw agricultural products and add value to them before marketing them.

“The Value Added Producer Grant program creates jobs and improves the financial returns for producers and farm families across rural Iowa, and rural America,” said Mark Reisinger, USDA Rural Development Iowa director, in a statement. “These grants will be used for planning to establish a viable value-added marketing opportunity, as well as for working capital to operate a new value-added business.”

The businesses receiving grants include:

•Iowa Healthy Edge Meats, West Union, $47,220. Assist with marketing goat meat to retail stores, restaurants and farmers in the Midwest.

•Central Iowa Soy, Jefferson, $120,361. Marketing for oil-roasted soybean and sweet corn products.

•Absolute Energy, St. Ansgar, $300,000. Working capital for ethanol plant.

•Cedar Valley Farms, Blairstown, $22,500. Examine options for an anaerobic digester or thermochemical biomass conversion system at dairy operation.

•Delaware County Meats, Dyersville, $10,000. Help launch and market new line of processed pork.

•East Fork Biodiesel, Algona, $89,000. Assess feasibility of using wind turbines to power biodiesel plant.

•Grow Your Small Market Steering Committee, Maxwell, $68,340. Develop processing facility for Iowa-grown fruits and vegetables. •Hansen’s Farm Fresh Dairy, Hudson, $90,000. Assist with production and marketing of non-homogenized ice cream and butter.

•Heartland BioEnergy, Webster City, $100,000. Business plan and feasibility study for the production of bio-oil generated from cornstalks and roots.

•Lutes Family Investment Group, Gillman, $93,000. Develop a plan for a multiple-turbine wind-generation facility.

•Natural Milk General Partners, Harlan, $87,500. Assess costs and benefits of different anaerobic digesters for dairy operation. •The Iowa Wine Trail, Baldwin, $28,637. Help develop a marketing campaign.

•William & Rona Wyant, Marengo, $142,300. Help with start-up costs for Fireside Winery.

The Iowa projects were among 162 businesses in 40 states and Puerto Rico to get a total of $22.7 million this year, USDA said in a statement.

Dow AgroSciences wins UN award

MONTREAL, Quebec — Dow AgroSciences LLC, a subsidiary of The Dow Chemical Company, has been named a winner of the United Nation’s Montreal Protocol Innovators Award at the annual Meeting of the Montreal Protocol, an international agreement designed to protect the earth’s ozone layer.

The award honors the company’s innovation, investment and commitment to protect the environment through its efforts to develop alternatives to methyl bromide, an ozone-depleting substance being phased out under the Protocol. At this meeting, which commemorates the 20th anniversary of the Protocol, Dow AgroSciences was also named a winner of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) “Best of the Best” Ozone Protection Award, which honors an elite group of companies, organizations and individuals who have demonstrated long-term excellence in efforts to protect the stratospheric ozone layer.