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 find surprising yield increases in
crops
fertilized with the meal.
