Ford’s quest for the car you can ... eat
Firm continues eco trail blazed by its founder
If you’re going to be stranded in the middle of nowhere after some disaster, natural or otherwise, you might want to be stuck there with a Ford product. Although I can’t promise you’ ll magically turn into a mechanic or MacGyver, you’ ll at least have something to eat.
For more than a decade, Ford has been experimenting with swapping out components of its cars to use plantbased products instead of petroleum- based ones. In setting up strategic partnerships with agricultural interests on both sides of the border, it has paved the way for the car industry to incorporate, and find ways to incorporate, things like soy, corn, tomatoes, wheat, coconut, bamboo, algae, dandelion and sugar cane.
Sound like a feast? Ford thought so, too. The automaker invited some journalists and foodies recently to Actinolite, a top-flight Toronto restaurant, where they put the chef and his staff to perhaps the ultimate test: make a car taste good.
The automobile industry comes under fire from environmentalists, and the fact is, no car makes the environment better.
You can read elaborate explanations that creating batteries for hybrids and electrics saps more of the Earth’s elements and creates more pollution during its birth than it will ever negate, and there are several studies debating the impact of using various fuel sources.
According to the automaker, the average Ford vehicle uses 20 to 40 pounds of renewable materials; almost 300 parts, across various platforms, are derived from sources such as soybeans, cotton, wood, flax, jute and natural rubber.
But sourcing components in a farmer’s field isn’t the whole story. It’s about finding ways to use the throwaways — the parts of the plant that are usually burned or discarded — and finding ways to use this former refuse to replace expensive oilbased parts.
There are s t umbling blocks; initial tests, displayed in the test labs in Dearborn, Mich., show soy- based foam looking like everything from bad movie popcorn to crazy cloud-shaped explosions.
These natural products are broken down to their molecular level, and then the work begins. They have to meet strict safety standards, be predictable in both performance and lifespan, and be able to be produced in volume.
This often requires innovation, from new tools to production scenarios, because food frequently doesn’t act like the things it is replacing.
It’s a long- term project and a venture that Ford has been committed to for nearly 15 years. Every Ford sold today contains naturally derived components. They’re usually things you don’t think much about, such as soy- foam head rests or wheat hull-reinforced plastic storage boxes. Carpet fibres might be from recycled clothing, there could be castor oilbased fuel lines and soybean oil- based gaskets and seals, and cellulose- reinforced plastic is increasingly taking the place of glass-reinforced plastic.
The goal is twofold: make use of renewable products, and lower vehicle weight to improve fuel economy.
This idea of looking to nature is hardly new for Ford. Fordlândia, an entire town carved out of the Brazilian rainforest in 1929 by Henry Ford, was a fascinating precursor to his company’s back- to- the- land thesis. The impetus then was to break a stranglehold held by rubber barons ( sorry, I couldn’t help it) who had a monopoly on rubber production, which Ford needed for tires. His idea? Grow his own. To that end, he transplanted what he had — production capability, workers and a support community — to a place that had what he didn’t: rubber.
“It i ncluded a power plant, a modern hospital, a library, a golf course, a hotel and rows of white clapboard houses with wicker patio f urniture,” Alan Bellows wrote in an article entitled The Ruins of Fordlândia. “As the town’s population grew, all manner of businesses followed, including tailors, shops, bakeries, butcher shops, restaurants and shoemakers. It grew into a thriving community with Model T Fords frequenting the neatly paved streets,” he wrote.
In addition to bringing workers from home, Ford hired locals to work on the project. He decided they would have to behave the way he wanted: no booze, no local food, no gambling, no dancing girls. The locals eventually revolted, the rubber trees failed to thrive, the Brazilian military was forced to wade in and the remnants of the town are now a curiosity you can visit if you happen to be down that way.
Ford was roundly lambasted for not doing his botanical homework, for starters, and for failing to recognize the very human factors that would be involved.
He was criticized for not understanding that people are, well, people, and sometimes you simply can’t bend things to your will, no matter how much money you throw at it.
The true loss? His failure with both Fordlândia, and a later attempt farther down the river called Belterra, contributed to the widespread use of synthetic rubber, which is made from petroleum. And that’s the very thing this company is now pushing back against.
So while hearing that Ford is looking for ways to turn tomato skins into bio- plastics or rice hulls into wire harnesses, the truth is that the idea was germinating in the mind of its inventor a century ago.
The recent dinner, with a menu featuring soybean custard, bamboo with kelp, and tomato with algae ( not gonna lie — some of these things were not as good as others), was an elegant and elevated reminder that we all have to find a way to work with the planet, even if you’re a car company.
Oh, and if you’re stranded with that Ford? Eat anything made from corn first. Yum.