Green Planet heralds food revolution
By Dave Dreeszen ddreeszen@siouxcityjournal.com | Posted: Sunday, November 09, 2008
From left, Tom Dowling, Rex Peterson and Rob Colwell use hand-held computers to control the equipment at the Green Planet Farms facility in South Sioux City's Roth Industrial Park. (Staff photo by Jim Lee)
SOUTH SIOUX CITY -- In a sprawling warehouse here, Green Planet Farms stores countless rows of giant tote bags, each filled with 2,000 pounds of organic soy flour.
Last week, the $40 million plant started transforming the flour into soy protein isolate, a key ingredient in a wide variety of food products.
Green Planet Farms envisions revolutionizing the food product industry with its eco-friendly process, which separates the protein from the oil without the use of chemicals.
Here's a look at the start-up firm's operations in South Sioux City's Roth Industrial Park.
Raw materials
The close proximity to the nation's largest soybean producing areas and milling facilities was one of the prime reasons Green Planet's investment group chose to locate in Siouxland. The site also is roughly equal distance between the east and west coasts, where the vast majority of the finished product will be shipped.
Two Iowa suppliers furnish organic soybeans and non-genetically modified soybeans, while another contractor mills into flour. A third-party certifies the organic beans, which are grown on land in which no synthetic pesticides or fertilizers have been used for at least three years.
Value-added agriculture
Rob Marqusee, rural economic development director for Woodbury County, which borders South Sioux City to the east, is recruiting local growers to help supply Green Planet's operations. Marqusee, who has made organic farming a centerpiece of the county's economic development efforts, notes organic soybeans fetch a premium price -- three times or more higher than conventionally grown beans.
"I'm getting the word out into the community that this is a great opportunity,'' he said.
At full production, Green Planet's plant would have the annual capacity to process the equivalent of around 68,000 acres of organic beans, Marqusee said.
Green Planet CEO Dennis Christiansen said the company wants to buy as much local soy flour as possible, supplementing its remaining needs with exports from other states, and such foreign countries as Argentina.
'Green' process
Green Planet bills itself as the only ingredient manufacturer that extracts soy protein isolate from full-fat soy flour, using only warm water and organic materials. Don Crank, executive vice president of research and development, developed the patented process, known as G2O.
Crank said the all-natural process creates a healthier and more functional product than traditional organic soy processing, which uses hexane, a byproduct of gasoline, as a solvent to extract protein from partially defatted soy flour.
Cutting-edge technology
All of Green Planet's automated equipment is controlled by computer software, accessed either inside a control room or with a portable tablet device that workers can carry with them around the plant.
During production, the full-fat flour goes through a vast network of gleaming, stainless steel tanks and pipes. The pasteurization system is similar to a dairy.
The plant's water-based process relies heavily on heat and steam. 10,000-gallon tanks pump out hot water at a rate of 250 gallons per minute, while other huge tanks soften the region's hard water.
To protect its trade secrets, company executives did not show The Journal the second-floor, state-of-the-art equipment that separates the flour into its four main elements.
"What we do is we take the fiber out, we take the fat out, we take the sugar away and it leaves the protein,'' Foster said.
At the end of the process, the liquid is dropped into a 130-foot-tall spray dryer, which turns the protein into a dry substance.
Stacked up against the competition
Food processors use soy protein isolate in a host of products, from protein shakes to meatless patties to snack foods to infant formula.
Marketing director Susanne Moore-Stoeger said the worldwide reception to Green Planet's isolate product, labeled Soygeail, has been "phenomenal.'' The name is derived from the Greek word, "ygeai,'' meaning health and long life.
Compared to traditional organic products, Moore-Stoeger said Soygeail offers greater nutrition, a better flavor and more functionality.
For instance, she cited a side-by-side comparison of nutritional shakes, using Soygeail and another leading soy product, which requires shaking before consumption.
"Our product will stay in solution forever,'' she said. "Their product, within 20 minutes, all the protein will have settled to the bottom of the glass.''
Soygeail also sets up like soft jello, which appeals to meat manufacturers. In comparison, traditional soy has a consistency like paste.
Unlike traditional soy products, Moore-Stoeger noted Green Planet's has no detectable flavor. That likely would be a strong selling point to manufacturers of infant formula for lactose-intolerance babies.
Other commercial uses
Green Planet also has identified strong markets for the other elements extracted from the organic soy flour. The oil will be used to make coffee creamer. The leftover pulp fiber will be sold as an organic additive for animal feed.
The recovered sugar can be washed down the sewer, but the company is looking into the feasibility of converting it into methane gas, Crank said.
Future plans
Green Planet, which currently employs about 30 workers, anticipates growing its full-time workforce to 60 to 70 within a year. The company pays an average hourly wage of about $17.
Though it's just started production, Green Planet already is opening talking about a significant expansion. The company has options on an adjacent 28 acres.
If its products prove successful in the marketplace, Crank said the firm fully expects to expand its operations.
Plant dodges financial crisis
Fortunately, Green Planet Farms lined up financing for its $40 million organic soy flour processing plant prior to a credit crunch hitting the global financial markets, said CEO Dennis Christiansen.
"I wouldn't want to set all of this up today,'' he said.
About 200 investors raised about $16 million in venture capital for the start-up project. Many investors are from the Norfolk, Neb. area, where the firm originally hoped to locate the $40 plant. But inadequate supplies of natural gas in Norfolk prompted the company to relocate to South Sioux City.
First American Bank of Sioux City supplied $10 million in additional funding, with the loans backed up by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development.
The state of Nebraska also awarded the project $400,000 in federal Community Development Block Grant funds.
--Dave Dreeszen
Last week, the $40 million plant started transforming the flour into soy protein isolate, a key ingredient in a wide variety of food products.
Green Planet Farms envisions revolutionizing the food product industry with its eco-friendly process, which separates the protein from the oil without the use of chemicals.
Here's a look at the start-up firm's operations in South Sioux City's Roth Industrial Park.
Raw materials
The close proximity to the nation's largest soybean producing areas and milling facilities was one of the prime reasons Green Planet's investment group chose to locate in Siouxland. The site also is roughly equal distance between the east and west coasts, where the vast majority of the finished product will be shipped.
Two Iowa suppliers furnish organic soybeans and non-genetically modified soybeans, while another contractor mills into flour. A third-party certifies the organic beans, which are grown on land in which no synthetic pesticides or fertilizers have been used for at least three years.
Value-added agriculture
Rob Marqusee, rural economic development director for Woodbury County, which borders South Sioux City to the east, is recruiting local growers to help supply Green Planet's operations. Marqusee, who has made organic farming a centerpiece of the county's economic development efforts, notes organic soybeans fetch a premium price -- three times or more higher than conventionally grown beans.
"I'm getting the word out into the community that this is a great opportunity,'' he said.
At full production, Green Planet's plant would have the annual capacity to process the equivalent of around 68,000 acres of organic beans, Marqusee said.
Green Planet CEO Dennis Christiansen said the company wants to buy as much local soy flour as possible, supplementing its remaining needs with exports from other states, and such foreign countries as Argentina.
'Green' process
Green Planet bills itself as the only ingredient manufacturer that extracts soy protein isolate from full-fat soy flour, using only warm water and organic materials. Don Crank, executive vice president of research and development, developed the patented process, known as G2O.
Crank said the all-natural process creates a healthier and more functional product than traditional organic soy processing, which uses hexane, a byproduct of gasoline, as a solvent to extract protein from partially defatted soy flour.
Cutting-edge technology
All of Green Planet's automated equipment is controlled by computer software, accessed either inside a control room or with a portable tablet device that workers can carry with them around the plant.
During production, the full-fat flour goes through a vast network of gleaming, stainless steel tanks and pipes. The pasteurization system is similar to a dairy.
The plant's water-based process relies heavily on heat and steam. 10,000-gallon tanks pump out hot water at a rate of 250 gallons per minute, while other huge tanks soften the region's hard water.
To protect its trade secrets, company executives did not show The Journal the second-floor, state-of-the-art equipment that separates the flour into its four main elements.
"What we do is we take the fiber out, we take the fat out, we take the sugar away and it leaves the protein,'' Foster said.
At the end of the process, the liquid is dropped into a 130-foot-tall spray dryer, which turns the protein into a dry substance.
Stacked up against the competition
Food processors use soy protein isolate in a host of products, from protein shakes to meatless patties to snack foods to infant formula.
Marketing director Susanne Moore-Stoeger said the worldwide reception to Green Planet's isolate product, labeled Soygeail, has been "phenomenal.'' The name is derived from the Greek word, "ygeai,'' meaning health and long life.
Compared to traditional organic products, Moore-Stoeger said Soygeail offers greater nutrition, a better flavor and more functionality.
For instance, she cited a side-by-side comparison of nutritional shakes, using Soygeail and another leading soy product, which requires shaking before consumption.
"Our product will stay in solution forever,'' she said. "Their product, within 20 minutes, all the protein will have settled to the bottom of the glass.''
Soygeail also sets up like soft jello, which appeals to meat manufacturers. In comparison, traditional soy has a consistency like paste.
Unlike traditional soy products, Moore-Stoeger noted Green Planet's has no detectable flavor. That likely would be a strong selling point to manufacturers of infant formula for lactose-intolerance babies.
Other commercial uses
Green Planet also has identified strong markets for the other elements extracted from the organic soy flour. The oil will be used to make coffee creamer. The leftover pulp fiber will be sold as an organic additive for animal feed.
The recovered sugar can be washed down the sewer, but the company is looking into the feasibility of converting it into methane gas, Crank said.
Future plans
Green Planet, which currently employs about 30 workers, anticipates growing its full-time workforce to 60 to 70 within a year. The company pays an average hourly wage of about $17.
Though it's just started production, Green Planet already is opening talking about a significant expansion. The company has options on an adjacent 28 acres.
If its products prove successful in the marketplace, Crank said the firm fully expects to expand its operations.
Plant dodges financial crisis
Fortunately, Green Planet Farms lined up financing for its $40 million organic soy flour processing plant prior to a credit crunch hitting the global financial markets, said CEO Dennis Christiansen.
"I wouldn't want to set all of this up today,'' he said.
About 200 investors raised about $16 million in venture capital for the start-up project. Many investors are from the Norfolk, Neb. area, where the firm originally hoped to locate the $40 plant. But inadequate supplies of natural gas in Norfolk prompted the company to relocate to South Sioux City.
First American Bank of Sioux City supplied $10 million in additional funding, with the loans backed up by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development.
The state of Nebraska also awarded the project $400,000 in federal Community Development Block Grant funds.
--Dave Dreeszen
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