Mustard seed offers farmers and gardeners
increased crop yields and creates a local supply of biodiesel
There's still gold in them hills!
Inspired by brilliant yellow fields of wild
mustard blooms, a small group of California farmers and scientists are
converting wild and domesticated mustards into soil amendments for
gardeners and farmers while producing biodiesel to run the diesel
engines of buses, tractors, trucks, and cars.
Mustard seed is well adapted to California's
seasonal rains and can be grown on fallow fields or in rotation with
other crops so they don't compete with food crops for water or land.
Mustard seed is becoming part of the energy
solution as well as a way for farmers and gardeners to reduce their
dependence on soil fumigants and chemical fertilizers. Mustard seed
produces a high quality biodiesel fuel and recent studies are finding
surprising yield increases in crops fertilized with the meal.
