REVOLUTION IN GREEN
Alumnus Hoy Buell finds cutting-edge uses for plants
By Leah Kolt
Nursery grass growing at Greenheart Farms in Arroyo Grande, Calif.
All photos by Leah Kolt
Future wars and conflicts will not be about oil but about water, plants and food, predicts Horticulture and Crop Sciences Department Head John Peterson.
In fact, the world is already in the midst of a “second green revolution,” driven this time by the need to save energy through new technologies.
The first revolution, in the 60s and 70s, focused more on enhancing yield to feed a growing world population.
“This time we are seeing a shift in the way we use our plant resources and the resulting impact on the way we live,” Peterson said.
Alumnus Hoy Buell – whose Greenheart Farms in Arroyo Grande is one of the largest vegetable transplant growers in the U.S., as well as the largest producer of rose plants – agrees: “If the political will is there, we can make significant changes and begin using our plant resources in beneficial new ways, such as fuel alternatives to oil and petroleum-based products.”
He’s not talking about corn ethanol, either. Buell points out that there are researchers and start-up companies developing new green products to replace current energy crops. For example, Miscanthus, a common ornamental grass that grows to 20 feet is some parts of the world, can be used as a fuel to produce electricity – without the negative impact on food prices that resulted from switching corn from a food crop to a biofuel.
Last year, researchers at the University of Illinois determined that this giant perennial grass outperforms current biofuels sources. To meet the White House goal of producing enough biofuel to offset 20 percent of gasoline use would take 25 percent of current U.S. cropland out of food production if corn were used. Miscanthus could do it with only 9.3 percent of current agricultural acreage, the researchers claim.
This new wave of plant exploration is also discovering new uses for green things that have benefits beyond food and fuel production. The guayule plant can be used as a substitute for latex, the rubber product which causes allergic reactions in many people.
This research was actually begun during World War II, when our southeastern Asia rubber supply was threatened, Buell explained. Now it is being reevaluated for its non-allergenic qualities. “Many medical personnel are allergic to latex gloves, and patients to breathing bags and catheters. So this plant product is a good alternative,” Buell said.
It could also be used to produce non-medical products, such as tires. “Pretty much any product that is made from rubber could be made from guayule,” he added.
To help protect important natural areas and native species, which may yield more important discoveries in the future, Buell is participating in the largest reclamation project in U.S. history.
Working with the Bureau of Reclamation, Greenheart is helping convert 8,000 acres of farm land on the Colorado River to bird habitat and reclaim lands with native plants.
Greenheart uses seeds and cuttings from native species collected along the Colorado River to ensure an indigenous population. They then grow the plants in small containers to optimum transplant age, which assures fast results and a more predictable success rate than other methods, such as bare root transplanting or direct seedling. Transplanted each March, these shrubs and trees thrive, with the tress growing as much as 10 feet a year.
Greenheart also produces salt-tolerant grasses, plants, shrubs and trees for other restoration projects around the country.
Reclamation work is representative of a characteristic unique to this second revolution, according to Peterson, a growing consciousness that we must do it more sustainably this time and “protect the green.”
Buell agrees. “It’s amazing how intrinsic plants are to our survival – for our oxygen supply, food, and medicines,” he observed. “And it’s interesting that while we depend on them for survival, they don’t depend on us. In fact, I think they might even shiver as we walk by.”
Left to right: John Peterson, Cal Poly Horticulture and Crop Science Department head; Cal Poly alum Hoy Buell; and Leah Kolt, Cal Poly director of Public Affairs.
Editor’s Note: For more on this topic, listen to a short podcast of a conversation between Cal Poly Horticulture and Crop Science Department Head John Peterson and alum Hoy Buell on Cal Poly’s fast-growing wine and vitculture degree program and the local wine industry.
