Pongamia trees grow where citrus once flourished, offering renewable energy and plant-based protein

An historic tree from India is now thriving in groves the place citrus timber as soon as flourished in Florida, and will assist present the nation with renewable vitality.

As giant elements of the Sunshine State’s once-famous citrus business have all however dried up over the previous 20 years because of two deadly illnesses, greening and citrus canker, some farmers are turning to the pongamia tree, a climate-resilient tree with the potential to provide plant-based proteins and a sustainable biofuel.

For years, pongamia has been used for shade timber, producing legumes — little brown beans — which are so bitter wild hogs received’t even eat them.

However not like the orange and grapefruit timber that lengthy occupied these rural Florida groves northwest of West Palm Seashore, pongamia timber don’t want a lot consideration.

Pongamia timber additionally don’t want fertilizer or pesticides. They flourish in drought or wet situations. And so they don’t require groups of employees to choose the beans. A machine merely shakes the tiny beans from the branches once they’re prepared to reap.

Terviva, a San Francisco-based firm based in 2010 by Naveen Sikka, then makes use of its patented course of to take away the biopesticides that trigger the bitter style, making the beans appropriate for meals manufacturing.

“Florida provides a uncommon alternative for each Terviva and former citrus farmers. The historic decline of the citrus business has left farmers with out a crop that may develop profitably on a whole lot of 1000’s of acres, and there must be a really scalable substitute, very quickly,” Sikka advised The Related Press. “Pongamia is the proper match.”

What’s the pongamia tree?

The pongamia is a wild tree native to India, Southeast Asia and Australia.

The legume is now getting used to provide a number of merchandise, together with Panova desk oil, Kona protein bars and protein flour.

The legumes additionally produce oil that can be utilized as a biofuel, largely for aviation, which leaves a really low carbon footprint, mentioned Ron Edwards, chairman of Terviva’s board of administrators and a long-time Florida citrus grower.

Turning a wild tree right into a home one hasn’t been straightforward, Edwards mentioned.

“There aren’t any books to learn on it, both, as a result of nobody else has ever carried out it,” he mentioned.

Bees and different pollinators feast on the pongamia’s flowers, supporting native biodiversity, Edwards mentioned. An acre of the timber can probably present the identical quantity of oil as 4 acres of soy beans, he added.

What’s left after the oil is faraway from the pongamia bean is “a really high-grade protein that can be utilized in its place in baking and smoothies and all types of different plant-based protein merchandise,” Edwards mentioned. “There’s plenty of potential for the meals business and the oil and petroleum business.”

Why Florida?

“We all know pongamia grows effectively in Florida, and the tip markets for the oil and protein that come from the pongamia beans — biofuel, feed, and meals components — are monumental,” Sikka mentioned. “So farmers can now scale back their prices and extra carefully align to the forefront of sustainable farming practices.”

At a nursery close to Fort Pierce, employees expert in pongamia grafting methods affix a portion of the mom tree to a pongamia rootstock, which ensures the genetics and desired traits of the mom tree are perpetuated in all of Terviva’s timber.

Pongamia vs. citrus

Citrus had been Florida’s premier crop for years till illness caught up with it beginning within the Nineteen Nineties with citrus canker and later greening.

Citrus canker, a bacterial illness, shouldn’t be dangerous to people, however causes lesions on the fruit, stems and leaves. Ultimately, it makes the timber unproductive.

Citrus greening, also referred to as Huanglongbing, slowly kills timber and degrades the fruit, based on the U.S. Division of Agriculture. Greening has unfold all through Florida since 2005, devastating numerous groves and decreasing citrus manufacturing by 75%. The illness has unfold to Louisiana, Texas and California.

Hurricane Ian triggered about $1.8 billion in damages to Florida’s agriculture in September 2023, hitting the citrus business at first of its rising season.

Illness and local weather points have additionally affected a lot of the world’s high citrus-producing nations. For instance, this 12 months’s harvest in Brazil — the world’s largest exporter of orange juice — is forecast to be the worst in 36 years because of flooding and drought, based on a forecast by Fundecitrus, a citrus growers’ group in Sao Paulo state.

However local weather and illness have little impact on pongamia timber, the corporate’s officers mentioned.

“It’s simply powerful, a jungle-tested tree” Edwards mentioned. “It stands as much as plenty of abuse with little or no caretaking.”

Pongamia additionally grows effectively in Hawaii, the place it now thrives on land beforehand used for sugarcane.

What are citrus farmers saying?

John Olson, who owns Circle O Ranch, west of Fort Pierce, has changed his grapefruit groves with 215 acres (87.01 hectares) of pongamia timber.

“We went via all of the ups and downs of citrus and ultimately due to greening, deserted citrus manufacturing,” Olson mentioned. “For essentially the most half the citrus business has died in Florida.”

Whereas the grapefruit grove was modest, it was widespread for a grove that dimension to be worthwhile within the Eighties and Nineteen Nineties, Olson mentioned.

Edwards mentioned farmers used varied sprays to kill the insect that was spreading the illness. Ultimately, the price of caring for citrus timber turned too dangerous.

That’s when he determined to go a special route.

“What attracted me to pongamia was the truth that one it might repurpose fallow land that was citrus and is now mendacity dormant,” he mentioned. “From an ecological perspective, it’s very enticing as a result of it might exchange a number of the oils and vegetable proteins that are actually being generated by issues like palm oil, which is environmentally a way more damaging crop.”

What about biofuel?

In December 2023, Terviva signed an settlement with Mitsubishi Company to offer biofuel feedstock that may be transformed into biodiesel or renewable diesel.

“Our partnership with Mitsubishi is off to an excellent begin,” Sikka mentioned, noting that the corporate coordinates carefully with Mitsubishi on tree plantings and product growth and gross sales. “Terviva’s progress has accelerated because of Mitsubishi’s experience and management across the globe on all sides of Terviva’s enterprise.”

What meals merchandise does pongamia produce?

The analysis is ongoing, however Edwards mentioned they’ve made actually good graham crackers along with the desk oil and different plant-based protein merchandise, together with flour and protein bars.

Pongamia provides a substitute for soybean and yellow pea protein “if you happen to don’t need your protein to come back from meat,” he mentioned.