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The long-term effects of pollution and industrial waste have local entrepreneurs seeing green.

“We all need to think about how we need to contribute to sustainable development, and that’s an area that needs improvement. Every time we watch the news, we see things like the icebergs melting, so we thought this could be just a small contribution,” said Derek McLaren, co-president of Manitoba Starch Products (MSP) with his brother Earl McLaren.

It is the only potato starch factory in Canada. The company takes starch, which has been considered a waste product from potato manufacturing companies such as Simplot Canada Ltd. and McCain Foods Ltd. in Portage la Prairie, and turns it into biodegradable products.

Conventional plastics can sit in landfill sites for 900 years before they break down into finer particles, but biodegradable plastics, or bio-plastics such as those now being manufactured by MSP, break down in less than 12 weeks.

A display of various bio-plastic products made with starch granules astonished young and old alike at the MacGregor Fair in late June.

What does a potato have in common with a boomerang in the display?

Boomerangs, planting pots, plates, cutlery, packing chips were just some of the items displayed by Manitoba Agriculture and Rural Initiatives (MAFRI) to promote biodegradable products.

Jars were used to demonstrate how starch packing chips, plastic cutlery and cups dissolve in water after a few hours. Some of the cups and cutlery were made out of corn starch.

“People were really surprised when they saw the boomerangs. Potatoes, for example, are more than just what you see on your plate. They are a part of a green industry that supports a large number of people and that needs to be recognized,” said Meghan Sprung, rural leadership specialist with MAFRI’s Central Plains Growing Opportunities team. The GO team is a community contact team with expertise in a broad range of agricultural issues — everything from crops and livestock to soil conditions and watersheds to small business development, training programs, product development and international marketing.

“Around Manitoba, starch is really a part of the industry. We want to promote environmentally-friendly products and Manitoba businesses, not only within the province and across country, but worldwide. It is obviously a trend, and we want to catch consumers on that level and show them what can be made with some of our agricultural products,” said Sprung.

Manitobans are looking at initiatives such as biodegradable campaigns and the 100-Mile Diet, which is a diet of locally-grown and produced food.

Sprung believes the public is aware of the benefits of buying local and supporting local, environmentally-friendly industry.

“The trend for green is so huge within the consumer sector. I think people are willing to try and experiment and work with items that are not only green and biodegradable, but locally produced,” she said.

This is where companies like the McLerans’ MPS in Carberry come into the picture, bringing innovative manufacturing techniques from, in this case, the Netherlands, where biodegradable products are taking off. The growing field of biopolymers or biodegradable plastics, relies on potato starch as a primary ingredient. Working with technology developed by Rodenburg Biopolymers of the Netherlands, MSP will be offering a biodegradable thermoplastic resin called Solanyl to companies that mould plastics into manufactured products.

For now, they are showcasing the possibilities by making products such as planting pots and packing chips to give companies some ideas.

“Right now, we’re working on horticultural and forest industry products. With all the reforestation that is and will be happening in the world, we see the market for a seedling tube that’s made with bio-plastic instead of plastic and just goes back to soil,” said McLaren. The company also makes golf tees and garden stakes that can just be left in the ground to decompose.

Most plastics will degrade over time, especially if they are exposed to sunlight, but plastic is usually one of the last things to disintigrate in a landfill.

However, Solanyl is truly biodegradable and meets the European Union’s measurable tests for compost ability.

“It’s been a little slow in the development because people weren’t really ready for it. It seems like in the past couple of years because of things like the price of gas, people are really becoming aware of environmental issues. What we want to do is show them there (are) other options and boosting that public awareness is going to take some time,” said McLaren.

The company is looking to cater to the hospital supplies market for such common throw-away items as dishes and trays. McLaren’s goal is also to continue to develop partnerships with potato processing companies.

“We’d like to have a bio-plastic plant beside every McCain plant in the world,” he said.

Individuals, like entrepreneurs in rural Manitoba, are making an effort toward a greener planet. Sheri Blaylock takes her cues from nature. As she walks through her 0.4-hectare organic garden, in a field rented from a neighbouring farmer, there is a sense of tranquility and the results of several hard days’ work.

This will be the first harvest year in the garden she has worked in daily for a little less than a year. Organic gardening is the science and art of growing fruits, vegetables, flowers or ornamental plants by following the essential principles of organic agriculture in soil building and conservation, pest management and heritage-species preservation.

Blaylock’s garden has a cornucopia of different organically-grown vegetables, including peas, carrots, beans, zucchini, cucumbers, potatoes, beets, radish, turnip, garlic, onion, spinach, cabbage and several varieties of lettuce, among them romaine and swiss chard.

A lot of the crops are just trials to see what planting methods work.

“It takes a lot of brain power, and nature is your teacher,” said Blaylock.

She has employed a lot of growing systems found in nature. The garden as not as “tidy” as most would be with neatly lined rows and bare earth.

“There’s really no need for it. Where in nature do you see anything growing around bare earth?,” said Blaylock, who took a leave from her job as a math teacher to WOOF in 1995.

WOOF stands for Willing Workers On Organic Farms and is a way for people to learn about organic farming while receiving food, accommodations and insight into the local culture from their host farm.

She discovered a new, greener way of life and an appreciation of organic farming while woofing in California, where water resources are scarce.

Since then, Blaylock has never looked back and decided to literally dig into a greener lifestyle in organic gardening.

“It’s a different mindset. A lot of people don’t realize we can grow a lot of the food that is shipped in here in Manitoba. It’s important for me to know where my food is coming from and that no chemicals were used (on it),”she emphasized.

“The cost to the environment is very important. The input cost for non-organic farmers keeps going up. There may be less yield in organic farming, but it’s far healthier, and I think the market for it will continue to grow as people become more aware of what organic is,” said Blaylock.

She employs a plastic irrigation system and row cover, which is a light, breathable cover used to put over a crop row to keep bugs out rather than using pesticides.

This alternative method does have its challenges. She notes it is difficult to keep the row cover on when a strong prairie breeze is blowing.

Blaylock’s days consist of planting, weeding and hilling potatoes, but it’s all worth it.

She will be contributing the harvest of her garden to a Community Shared Agricultural Program.

The program is a place where people can buy a share for about $350 and get a year’s worth of organically-grown vegetables.

“Everyone should have access to organic food in Manitoba. It’s a great feeling to know you are getting good quality food in a way that is not harming the earth,” she said.

For more information about the local Community Shared Agricultural Program, contact organicsheri@shaw.ca.

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