Monterey-Salinas Transit to produce own fuel from mustard seed

[hunter]

MST has faith in mustard seeds
By VICTOR CALDERON
The Salinas Californian

This year, Monterey-Salinas Transit could become the first public transit agency in the world to produce its own sustainable biodiesel fuel for its fleet operations, agency officials said Wednesday.

The source? Locally grown mustard seeds.

After planting, the crop requires little to no irrigation or tending, a major contrast with other higher-maintenance biofuel crops, such as corn, MST leaders said. Because mustard seed is planted as a cover crop during the Salinas Valley agriculture industry's off-season, it would not displace other crops nor would it drive up prices for food, a concern recently cited as a potentially adverse impact of the biofuel industry.

http://www.thecalifornian.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080214/NEWS01/802140303

[diane in sf]

1. Sounds win-win

[izquierdista]

2. Sounds beautiful too

Mustard makes coastal California very beautiful this time of year.



Again, biodiesel doesn't have to come from a food crop.

[kestrel91316]

3. Hell, you can't KEEP mustard from growing here. Should be an easy crop

to produce. And I like the beneficial use as a cover crop off-season.

Lots of beneficial insects thrive around mustard, too. Those parasitic wasps and such.