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Healthy Oil Vistive soybeans grow with push in reducing trans fats

By Katie Nickas

LAFAYETTE, Ind. — The air in the conference room was full of delectable food, friendly conversation and an optimistic sense that low-linolenic acid soybeans are becoming the agricultural wave of the future.

Monsanto Co., the Indiana Soybean Alliance and area producers recently met with contractors at the Cargill plant to promote Monsanto’s Vistive soybeans, which are helping the product industry while reducing trans fats in American diets.

“Consumers are wanting healthier foods and healthier oils,” said Monsanto soybean quality traits manager Joe Bothe. “Because of this, we are very excited about Vistive and our agronomic trade products.”

Trans fats were nationally exposed in 2006, when the Food and Drug Administration began requiring food products to carry trans fat content on their labels.

Today, FDA research estimates that trans fats labeling will have prevented between 600 and 1,200 cases of heart disease and 250 to 500 deaths by 2009.

“Soybean oil must be hydrogenated to be used in certain foods, which creates trans fats,” Bothe said. “Vistive soybeans contain three percent linolenic acid, compared to the eight percent content of conventional beans.

“Because of this, Vistive doesn’t need to be hydrogenated, and can be used by food companies,” he said.

After being launched in 2005 on 1,000 acres of land, Vistive expanded to Indiana in 2006, driven by a demand for healthier oil alternatives by national and local suppliers.

More than 100 food companies, including Kentucky Fried Chicken and Kellogg’s, are using Vistive oil in their products, Bothe said.

About 1.5 million acres of Vistive soybeans were planted nationwide this year, including more than 200,000 acres in Indiana, said Monsanto director of public affairs Geri Berdak.

In addition, Monsanto works with eight different processors throughout the country, and Cargill is one of three Indiana locations participating in the program, she said.

With such widespread application, work on Vistive soybeans appears to be well-oiled for the future.

“Growers who planted Vistive low-lin beans this season will receive a 55 to 65-cent-per-bushel premium,” Berdak said.

“There are over 18 states that have banned trans fats, so we know that consumers are conscious about what process goes into their foods,” she said. “Products like Vistive will allow us to process these products with the same taste and label.”

Soybean industry producers will also directly benefit from the use of the beans as the prime source of trans-fat-free oil.

“From a grower’s perspective, the identity has certainly been preserved,” Bothe added. “Every grower has a contract with the processor.”

Cargill senior merchandiser Fred Reichart stressed the importance of Vistive’s relationship with producers and the company’s responsibility to contract Vistive’s acreage.

“We let the farmer set his prices,” he said. “We’ve already been told that premiums will be a 60 cents a bushel next year, and we don’t see anything but it growing in the future.”

All in all, the initiative is a windfall for a widereaching audience of producers, consumers and entrepreneurs of agricultural alternatives and innovation.

“We need the growers to see the value in this,” Bothe said. “We want to keep Indiana and U.S. soybean operations as prime locations for these soybeans.”