New Sweetpotatoes-Food, Feed,& Fuel

(StartUp Compete) Even though sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas L.) has been rated as a very healthy alternative to potato, there are very few convenience foods available from the vegetable type of sweetpotato compared to potato. Despite being the 7th largest world crop, there are few processing and industrial uses of this crop in the USA compared to the 100’s of processed products made from other major crops such as corn and soybean. Like pumpkin or carrot, the orange-fleshed sweetpotato was bred as a fresh market vegetable that is a sweet and delectable with a distinct, strong flavor and soft texture. In other parts of the world, consumers prefer a dry, bland, starchy sweetpotato, comparable to the Irish or white potato (Solanum tuberosum, L. ).

Because it is a high starch crop like corn, in Japan and China, the starchy sweetpotato is used for starch, vodka and fuel ethanol, animal feed, and other industrial uses, similar to corn. However there are not commercial processing varieties available and adapted in the US growing conditions.

For the 21rst Century, a new crop like the energy sweetpotato is needed for Food, Fuel and Feed, that is higher yielding than corn and soybeans. This crop needs to be more sustainable, with lower inputs, much more heat tolerant, and able to produce high yields on poor soils, with less Nitrogen and water.

The development of this feedstock will allow the production of sustainable, renewable fuel that will As an edible crop, with edible vines, each acre will produce Fuel, Food and Feed in higher yields than any current biofuel crops like corn or sugar cane.

The energy sweetpotato has been shown to have a very low Carbon footprint compared to corn. Biofuels that made from this Advanced Biofuel Feedstock (crop) that replace petroleum-based fuels can have a major world impact on stopping detrimental effects of climate change. At the same time, from the same acreage, we can get 10-12 tons of vines for feed (to replace water intensive feed crops like silage corn and alfalfa) and 1200 lbs. of valuable, GMO vegetable protein for human food.

With 28 years of experience as a sweetpotato breeder, Dr. Janice Ryan-Bohac has spent many years developing high dry matter sweetpotato varieties specifically for new processed food products and industrial uses. The CX-1, her first very high yielding sweetpotato variety has a patent pending. This crop can yield up 1800 gallons per acre (compare to corn at 3 to 400 gallons/acre). She has also developed new orange dry-fleshed breeding lines with superior texture for fries and chips, and yellow- and purple dry- fleshed lines with superior texture and other traits for fresh market, fries, chips, roasted, and other healthy products. READ MORE WATCH VIDEO