The #FarmToCar mission is simple: replace petroleum-based plastics with plant-based materials.https://t.co/ETS8NqtqxL
— Ford Drive Green (@FordDriveGreen) May 10, 2016
You may think of soybeans as a modern health-food craze, but actually, they have been grown in America since we were the colonies. They were mainly used as forage for livestock in those days.
In the 1930s, Henry Ford dreamed of bringing together American agriculture with the auto industry. He himself had grown up on a farm. He believed that if plastics could be made with petroleum oil, they could be made with soybean oil.
In the early 1940s, Ford actually did it -- a single prototype made of bio-plastic was built. Then World War II broke out, and both the prototype and formula were lost or destroyed.
Fast forward six decades, and Debbie Mielewski, now the Senior Technical Lead of Ford Materials Sustainability, was knocking on doors and making phone calls, trying to get her idea of plant-based plastics off the ground.
"We were told over and over it could not be done," she said. "I always say we got thrown out of every conference room in the company. But I believed we had a responsibility to do it."
After seven years of trial and error -- mostly error -- the recipe for soy foam was perfected, and just in time for the 2007 oil crisis. "When oil prices spiked at over $160 a barrel, this became a very popular, desirable idea. So we went from total obscurity to being nerd rock stars."
There are now over 15 million Ford vehicles on the road with soy-foam seats. The environmentally sustainable substance is used in all new Ford vehicles built in North America.
You can see how soy foam, and other sustainable materials add up to a quality cabin space at Central Ford in Trumann, AR.