Rob:  Located in the panhandle of Oklahoma, Seaboard Farms is best known as the leading pork producer in the U S.  And now they are cutting the fat and turning it into high-grade bio diesel.  Our Alisa Hines was there as they turned on the tap.
All right, this plant is now officially open.
Alisa:  With the cutting of the red ribbon, the new High Plains Biodiesel Plant is now open for business.  And according to Oklahoma secretary of agriculture, Terry Peach, it’s good for our state.
Terry Peach:  This is tremendous for Oklahoma.   This is the kind of project that Oklahoma agriculture and rural Oklahoma has been looking for, for several years.
Alisa:  A subsidiary of Seaboard Farms, the plant will be able to produce thirty-million gallons of bio diesel annually.  And according to Seaboard Foods president, Rod Brenneman, this will add value to Seaboard’s pork processing.
Rod Brenneman:  What it’s going to do, is not only produce renewable energy, which obviously is one of our commitments in business, but it’s also going to, hopefully, add to our bottom line.  I mean, we certainly do this for economic reasons, as well as, renewable energy reasons.
Alisa:  It will also be good for the panhandle area.
Rod Brenneman:  It’s going to add jobs.  We’ve got 30-35 jobs. It’s going to add tax base to the state of Oklahoma.  And for the Guymon region, incremental development, like this, in value-added agriculture is going to be a huge positive.
Alisa:  Using a state of the art process, they produce bio diesel from animal fat, about a pound of pig fat, to make a gallon of fuel.
Rod Brenneman:  We’re able to take by-product from our processing plant, which actually has been converted from grain to meat, meat into by-products, and the by-products then are converted into a renewable energy resource.
Alisa:  A natural resource that plant manager, Bob White says, is also better for the environment.
Bob White:  So this really improves the value of something that was once a waste stream, a low value stream for them, and it also improves the environment, and they’re very much committed to doing that.
Terry Peach:  This product, that will come out of this plant, is able to be burned in any diesel vehicle that’s on the road today.  You have to make no adjustments.  You have to make no alterations.  If you have a diesel engine, you can burn bio diesel.
Alisa:  It’s a clean-burning, renewable fuel, now available at Love’s stations in Oklahoma.