Green Tech

Demand for biofuels in Europe and the United States has forced up food prices 75 percent around the world, according to a World Bank report that was leaked and published in The Guardian newspaper on Friday.

The number stands in sharp contrast to the 3 percent contribution to higher food pricing estimated by the United States Department of Agriculture.

Meanwhile, a study commissioned by food manufacturers pegs the contribution of biofuels on food prices at between 25 percent and 35 percent. (Click here for PDF).

The reports will surely heat up the debate on biofuels policy one week before the scheduled G8 meeting in Japan. Both the U.S. and Europe have biofuels mandates to lessen dependence on imported fossil fuels.

The World Bank argues that these policies have distorted the market for grains in three ways, according to The Guardian. First, crops that would have been sold for food have been diverted for biofuels production. Second, land is now being used for fuels rather than food. And third, the mandates have set off speculation in financial markets

"Without the increase in biofuels, global wheat and maize stocks would not have declined appreciably and price increases due to other factors would have been moderate," The Guardian quoted the report as saying.

The World Bank earlier this year issued a warning on biofuels and blamed them, in part, for food crises in developing countries. The Guardian said that the food impact report was delayed for political reasons, specifically not to discredit the Bush Administration's strong support for biofuels, particularly corn-based ethanol.

The wide disparity in analysis among the different parties is hard to decipher.

At the very least, it demonstrates the public relations and political battles we can expect over the coming years between supporters and detractors of biofuels.

Grist.org parses the political angles of the report in its post on Saturday.

A non-political research organization, New Energy Finance, published an analysis early this year that found a relatively small impact on price from biofuels policy.

Overall, it found grain prices went up about 8 percent because of biofuels, with corn affected more heavily because of U.S. policy. From the report:

In grains, during the period from 2004 to April 2008, global dollar prices increased by an average of 168 percent. The rising price of oil accounts for an increase of 32.5 percent and other inputs--such as land and labor costs--contributed 7.4 percent. Dollar depreciation accounts for a further 17.9 percent. Supply and demand imbalances account for the remaining 57.7 percent, with biofuels responsible for up to an 8.1 percent increase in global average grain prices (the impact on U.S. corn was clearly above average). The biggest issues were the failure to improve yields to compensate for global population growth, along with the failure of the Australian harvest.

Biofuels Digest has more background on the food versus fuel debate.

Update at 8:00 a.m. PT on July 8: The Wall Street Journal found that the supposedly secret report was actually a position paper from April. A final paper to be published later this week will likely conclude that the contribution of biofuels on food prices will be lower than 75 percent. See here.

A sampling of green-tech news with quick commentary.

• Free Swap Meet Sites Booming - Christian Science Monitor
  As more people stop buying new things, they're turning to Web sites like Freecycle, ReUseIt, and FreeSharing to exchange used goods.
• Why Are Solar Stocks So Low? - Earth2Tech
  Recent "manic depressive" declines of 6 percent to 8 percent in solar stocks are triggering dark moods among investors.

• SUVs Become Tougher Sell - Washington Post
  As Americans brace for fuel costs to remain high, the love affair with gas-guzzling sport-utility vehicles could be crashing to a halt.
• Barriers Grow to Big Coal - Greentech Media
  A new plant in Georgia fails to get approval as courts tie coal power to carbon emissions, and the government invests $1.3 billion in clean coal.
• Drop in Bee Biodiversity and Numbers Threatens World's Crops - New Scientist
  How many bees does it take to make a pumpkin grow? By some counts, 25 species. But biodiversity is dropping along with bee populations, which could spell a future of fewer food choices.
• Biodiesel Standards Could Agree with Warranties - Gas 2.0
  Filling up with biodiesel can void automaker's warranties. But some users hope that that could change, thanks to approval of some blends from the American Society for Testing and Materials.
• American Infrastructure Needs Overhaul - Economist
  Deteriorating U.S. roads and bridges could rival those in third-world countries in the coming decades, experts warn.

It's not uncommon on California roadways to spot diesel cars with bumper stickers that boast of biofuels in the engine, using slogans such as "Fuel for the revolution."

"This is the largest underground movement in the United States since the Civil War and the underground railroad," said Michael Wittman, an environmental activist and biodiesel user in Los Angeles.

But many drivers who began using biofuels to reduce their carbon emissions and save money fear that little-known government regulations are nipping the adoption of homegrown, "green" fuels in the bud.

In California, it's illegal to collect vegetable oil from a restaurant for fuel without paying a $300 license upfront as well as hefty road use taxes per gallon. And along with rising costs for commodities, rules regulating how to sell non-standard fuels are driving some biofuel suppliers out of business.

"There are so many people doing this underground, not putting stickers on their cars to advertise," Wittman said. "Restaurant owners are not aware it's illegal so when a customer asks for oil they say, 'Sure.' People don't know the rules."

Apparently the only way that people have been getting away with filling up their diesel tanks with home-filtered vegetable oil has been due to regulators looking the other way.

Biofuel users who want to collect vegetable oil have to apply for a license from the meat and poultry inspection branch of the California Department of Food and Agriculture. The price in the last year or so has gone to $300 from $75, not counting mandatory insurance.

In April, an Illinois man was arrested in Santa Clara County for trying to take grease from a Burger King.

And many people running home-brewed fuel aren't aware that they owe road maintenance taxes, which are built into the price of gasoline or diesel at the pump.

Even Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was surprised to learn that he owed taxes of 18 cents for every gallon of straight cooking oil that was powering his converted Hummer, according to the Los Angeles Times.

After drivers including a state senator faced fines in North Carolina last year, it became one of five states to stop imposing road use taxes on biofuel users. Drivers are also exempt in Illinois as well as Rhode Island, Texas, and Indiana.

In a well-publicized 2007 Illinois case, state tax authorities accused a retired couple of breaking the law by running a converted 1986 Volkswagen Golf on waste vegetable oil at 46 miles per gallon.

The tax remains in California, in addition to an 18 cent per gallon federal tax.

Biofuel advocates wonder why they aren't getting the same breaks as hybrid cars, which aren't subject to motor fuel taxes for the time they cruise on roads under electrical power. Some feel they are being punished for their efforts to drive "greener," and blame Big Oil for influencing lawmakers.

And many worry that the food-versus-fuels concern has led the public to "blame the hippies" for the rising prices for staple crops.

Fans of "green" fuel note, however, that biodiesel can be made without using food crops and other commodities. On the West Coast, biodiesel cooperatives have switched from using virgin soy shipped from the Midwest to recycling feedstock from local sources. Potentially even more sustainable, algae remains on the horizon.

The general public often confuses the various types of biofuels. Biodiesel and veggie oil get lumped in with ethanol, made from corn largely grown by large corporations and backed by government subsidies. But biodiesel can be pumped into in any car that accepts petroleum-based diesel.

Cars that run on grease from french fries or other food, by contrast, must be converted first, which can cost several thousand dollars. Those vehicles can hum along on waste oil from restaurants or, say, on canola oil from Costco.

As with gasoline, prices are climbing for biofuels across the board. Biodiesel costs around $5 per gallon, still more than petroleum-based diesel at the pump. Pure vegetable oil from a store shelf that was less than $4 per gallon last year costs above $4.50.

Some veggie oil users who used to be paid by restaurants for offloading waste grease are finding that they now have to pay the restaurants as much as 10 cents per gallon.

VegRev, a small shop that converts old diesel Mercedes to accept a mix of diesel, biofuel and waste oil, scrapped its plans from last year to sell waste oil-based fuel for $1.50 per gallon in San Francisco. Co-founder William Hibbitts, who has since moved operations to Oakland,Calif., said legal red tape wasn't the issue.

But vegetable oil appears to be caught in a Catch-22. The EPA requires all fuel and additives to be tested, but while biodiesel can meet ASTM standards, vegetable oil isn't eligible.

"People who want to sell straight vegetable oil are complaining about the diesel tax," said Kent Bullard, co-founder and president of the L.A. Biodiesel Cooperative. "The bigger issue is it's not legal as a road fuel in California. It's a chicken and egg situation. You're not going to get the standard through."

Collective efforts to legitimize vegetable oil appear to be aborted, at least for now. The Web site of the National VegOil Board is no longer being maintained.

"It still boggles my mind to have such a simple alternative out there yet to have regulators create obstacles and hurdles to that process when all we want to do is provide clean easy solutions to live sustainably."

--Colette Brooks, co-founder of the L.A. Biodiesel Cooperative

"It still boggles my mind to have such a simple alternative out there yet to have regulators create obstacles and hurdles to that process when all we want to do is provide clean easy solutions to live sustainably," said Brooks, who also sells biodiesel-ready used Mercedes.

As opposed to vegetable oil, biodiesel can involve toxic chemicals to brew but is classified as a developmental fuel. Biodiesel sellers form co-operatives because by law, experimental fuel can only be sold to a controlled group of users. They must comply with the same laws governing gas stations, which deal with vast quantities and far greater toxic chemicals.

"Maybe for some of the real small guys it's a big problem, but it's kind of a serious business selling fuel," said Will Noel, general manager of Santa Cruz-based biodiesel station Pacific Biofuel, which pays up to $9,000 per year on permits. "If someone breaks down it can be very dangerous."

Byzantine laws

Colette Brooks, a co-founder of the L.A. Biodiesel Cooperative, recently received a confusing visit from the California Department of Weights and Measures. Brooks said she doesn't oppose moves to ensure the safety of the fuel, but wishes the rules, similar to those regulating regular gas stations, weren't so byzantine.

"It still boggles my mind to have such a simple alternative out there yet to have regulators create obstacles and hurdles to that process when all we want to do is provide clean easy solutions to live sustainably," said Brooks, who also sells biodiesel-ready used Mercedes.

Wesley Caddell, co-owner of the People's Fuel Cooperative in San Francisco, finds it ridiculous that California is the only state to classify biodiesel as an experimental fuel. In San Francisco he has worked for five years to install biodiesel pumps. Adding air quality permits to the growing pile of regulations, he said he'd have to come up with $60,000 for a fueling station, which would take a decade to recover given the tiny profit margins.

"I haven't felt the love from above," he said. "We're busting our tail to make this happen, but you can't buy it at the pump. It's a joke because the fuel's been in use for many years all over Midwest. Truckers have been running biodiesel with no problem."

Biofuel activists want authorities to relax the web of fines, licenses, and taxes. Even if they could succeed, however, other barriers to widespread adoption of biofuels would remain.

Although more diesel vehicles with boosted fuel economy have come to the U.S. market, car makers don't advertise biofuel compatibility. Instead, running a new Volkswagen on alternative fuels would void a warranty.

Someone who modifies a car to run on an alternative fuel is supposed to get the car re-certified with the EPA or face a $3,500 fine, explained Bullard of the L.A. Biodiesel Coop, who also audits biodiesel manufacturing plants for the National Biodiesel Accreditation Commission.

And car manufacturers would have to recall an entire line if tests by the Environmental Protection Agency found used vehicles that fail emissions standards and ran fuel that doesn't meet government standards.

Can the lowly algae ease a growing food-versus-fuel debate?

A growing number of start-ups are betting against the dominant biofuel crops--corn and soy--and looking to sidestep the backlash against biofuels, which are being blamed in part for higher food prices and deforestation around the world.

Melbourne, Fla.-based PetroAlgae says that it hopes to test a commercial system as early as next year.

The company licensed strains of freshwater algae bred by Arizona State University and is developing the bioreactors and harvesting methods to grow the algae at large scale, said Fred Tennant, PetroAlgae's vice president of business development.

The algae harvested from open-pond farms can be converted to oil that can be refined into biodiesel. The remaining material can be sold as high-protein animal feed, Tennant said.

Because algae needs a source of carbon dioxide to grow, PetroAlgae is seeking to set up joint ventures with electric utilities looking to reduce their carbon emissions.

"The laws that are being debated right now will change a power company's life. They will have to have a lot more renewable energy and get rid of CO2," Tennant said. "Any power company in the world will be happy to pay us to take their CO2 away."

There are several other companies pursuing a similar path to PetroAlgae.

GreenFuel Technologies ran a multi-year program with Arizona Public Service to grow algae and is said to be close to closing a large algae biodiesel production deal in Europe.

Solayzme is using fermentation, rather than photosynthesis, to grow algae oil that can be tuned for different purposes, such as jet fuel or edible oils.

Another company, LiveFuels has said that it has a target of producing 100 million gallons by 2010 using genetic manipulation.

Great green hope for biodiesel
These companies are pursuing algae because its potential as a fuel is so promising: it's a non-food crop, removes large amounts of carbon dioxide from the air, and grows fast.

Algae has a relatively high energy density compared to soybeans, which means more soy on more land needs to be planted for the same amount of fuel yield.

"What's happening is there has been more focus recently on the food-versus-fuel debate, more focus on the price of feedstock, and more understanding that using an agricultural-based crop as a fuel is not sustainable," said Michael Weaver, the CEO and co-founder of Seattle-area algae start-up Bionavitas. "We're seeing that reflected in the marketplace."

Similarly, many biofuels companies are trying to develop methods for making ethanol from wood chips, grasses, or agricultural wastes, rather than corn.

But for all of algae's promise, the technology to make fuel still remains experimental. And the biggest challenge facing any biofuel company is cost, say algae company executives.

"Anybody can grow algae if cost is no object. Lots of algae companies have done a great job, but the system doesn't look like a massively scalable system," said PetroAlgae's Tennant.

PetroAlgae needs to have its farms located in sunny, hot places to speed up the drying process; their tiny algae strains are 98 percent water.

He said the company envisions its pond farms will be deployed across 1 to 10 acres at a site that generates a lot of carbon dioxide.

Growing pains
As with most new technologies, early entrants have had their glitches. In its Arizona Power pilot test, GreenFuel Technologies found that its bioreactors produced too much algae and that the cost of harvesting it was high.

Algae also needs a lot of water to grow, so producers need to develop systems to recycle their water and find a suitable place to grow their crop.

Another key technical problem is that traditional bioreactors--shaped as tubes or plastic bags--ultimately hit a wall in terms of how much light they let in, said Weaver of Bionavitas, which is developing equipment to address "self shading."

"If you have a series of tubes or plastic bags on the desert floor or wherever, you are still limited by the amount of photons that get in from the sun to create more algae. When the algae gets slightly dense, it starts blocking its own light," he said.

Rising prices of traditional soybeans, which is what most biodiesel is made of today, is helping spur more research into algae. The price of soybean oil has more than doubled in the last two years, prompting some refineries to shut down operations.

In the meantime, there's a wide range of predictions for when algae will make a dent commercially.

"There are varying guesses as to when that will becoming commercially available--from a couple of years out to several years out," said a representative for the National Biodiesel Board.

Indonesia is probably the worst place in the world to grow biofuel crops, according to David Lobell, who is part of a project to determine good and bad places in the world to grow fuel crops.

"There are meters and meters of carbon in tropical peat lands," said Lobell, a senior research scholar at the Woods Institute on the Stanford University campus. Cutting down these old tropical forests for agricultural land would release a massive amount of carbon into the atmosphere. Conceivably, it could take a few hundred years of biofuel consumption to displace the carbon released in land clearance.

"Pretty much everywhere is better," he said.

The three-year project goes to the heart of the pressing food versus fuel debate. The U.S., Brazil, and some European nations are trying to encourage drivers to switch to biofuels like ethanol and biodiesel that emit fewer greenhouse gases. Those fuels right now, however, are typically made from food crops like corn, sugar, and soybeans, and converting food into gas is contributing to rising food prices. Other factors--rising food consumption in China, droughts, crop diseases--are contributing to the problem, too, but experts say biofuel production has definitely exacerbated the situation.

Food riots continue to rage in Egypt, Haiti, Cameroon, and other emerging nations. The International Monetary fund earlier this week encouraged developed nations to put together programs that could help alleviate the situation and warned that further famine and poverty could occur if nothing is accomplished.

Ideally, biofuels could be grown out of non-food crops on land that's not as suitable or productive as farmland and won't release much carbon into the atmosphere when cultivation begins.

Is anywhere good? Semi-arid areas of India could work well, Lobell said. Jatropha, an oily seed that isn't fit for human consumption, grows in those regions and can be converted into diesel.

There is also a good possibility of growing fuel crops in CRP, or Conservation Reserve Program, lands in the U.S. These are the acres that the federal government pays farmers not to cultivate. Unfortunately, the amount of CRP land is actually somewhat small from a global perspective and might have only a marginal effect on fuel supplies.

While the project will go on for three years, Lobell says some preliminary data may emerge this fall.

What's causing the global rise in food prices? Everything.

Growing demand for food in emerging nations, wheat crop failures, currency fluctuation, speculation in the commodities market, hastily conceived government policies, and the growing demand for biofuels have all--among other factors--converged to drive up the price of food, experts say.

"Those who say it's all the fault of biofuels are wrong and those that say that none of the fault belongs to biofuels are wrong," said Walter Falcon, a professor emeritus of international agricultural policy at Stanford University and co-director of Stanford's Center for Environmental Sciences and Policy. "There is no doubt biofuels have added to the problem, but biofuels are not causing the demand for meat and soybeans for feed in China...There are a half a dozen things going on and it's hard to sort out who gets the blame."

The severity of the problem has been highlighted by recent violent food riots in Egypt, Cameroon, Haiti, and other emerging nations.

The World Bank also issued a report Monday saying that the surge in prices could push 100 million people into deep poverty. The International Monetary Fund has asked developed nations to put forth solutions to avert even larger shortages.

Meanwhile, several analysts have asserted that demand for biodiesel is prompting speculators in Malaysia and other tropical nations to cut down forests to plant soybeans and other oil crops. The deforestation in turn creates greenhouse gases that can displace a lot of the benefits of burning cleaner fuels.

While biofuels often tend to get mentioned as a cause of skyrocketing food prices, the complexity of the situation is mind-boggling. As a result, fixing it in a relatively straightforward manner doesn't seem likely. (Other experts painted a similar, dour picture for CNET News.com during interviews at the Clean Edge conference earlier this year.)

Steady pressure on food prices has been building for several years because of consumption in emerging nations, said Roz Naylor, a senior fellow at Stanford studying the correlation of food prices and biofuels. That accelerated after outbreaks of wheat rust in India and Pakistan and droughts in Ukraine and Australia.

"I would say that the trigger factor last year was the drought that caused the wheat to go down," she said.

Exchange rates have also contributed. Because the shrinking dollar makes U.S. food cheap, other nations can and do buy more food grown here.

Biofuel programs, particularly in the U.S., have also prompted speculators to drive up prices. Biofuels, she added, "are a contributing factor, but they aren't the only one."

Then there are policy triggers, Falcon said. India has imposed bans on the export of non-fragrant rice. That will likely cause rice prices to spike this year.

You can even add rising oil prices to the mix, Falcon added. Pesticides and fertilizer depend on fossil fuel products. Shipping prices are also on the rise: grain transporters have to compete for space on cargo vessels with other bulk products coming to and from China.

Corn is probably the commodity most directly impacted by biofuels. An estimated 25 to 30 percent of the U.S. corn crop goes to ethanol, said Ken Cassman, a professor of agronomy and horticulture at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. (Worldwide, ethanol accounts for around 5 percent of grain production, according to statistics from the Earth Policy Institute.)

"That amount of demand has come out of nowhere," he said. "Three years ago, the amount of corn used for ethanol was rather small and no one predicted this."

The spike in corn prices began with the Energy Security Act of 2005, which increased the goal for ethanol use in the U.S., and Hurricane Katrina. Replacing the gas additive MTBE also contributed.

Still, it's not a completely clear picture. Increasing meat consumption in China has driven up the price of feed. Meat consumption isn't nearly as large in India, but there is growing demand for milk and cheese, and cows need feed to provide that.

In 2007, farmers shifted acres of soybeans over to corn production. While that partly ameliorated corn prices, it caused soy prices to rise. In turn, that has contributed to the rise in meat prices because soy is a feedstock.

Interestingly, in 2008, farmers are expected to convert a lot of those corn acres back to soy.

"When you shift out of corn, other crops become more valuable," Cassman said.

Cellulosic ethanol, produced from wood chips, and algal biodiesel could begin to lessen the demand for grains and beans in the fuel industry. Both industries, though, are in the experimental phases.

It's become a staple of conventional wisdom that increased ethanol production has caused food prices worldwide to skyrocket.

Unfortunately, many experts and crop data say that's not a complete answer. Granted, production of corn ethanol has surged in the U.S. and has boosted pricing pressure. Lester Brown of the Earth Policy Institute noted in a recent column on Cleantech.com that demand for grain by ethanol distillers jumped from 54 million tons in 2006 to 81 million tons in 2007. That jump of 27 million tons effectively doubled the annual growth rate. Brown said that ethanol creates instability in the food pricing market.

The annual growth rate, however, only represents a small fraction of the grain actually produced. In 2006, world production of grain came to 1.992 billion tons of grain while consumption came to 2.043 billion tons. In 2007, production rose to 2.075 billion tons while consumption went to 2.098 billion tons. Thus, ethanol only represents about 4 percent of worldwide grain consumption.

Instead, crop prices have been rising because of an imbalance of supply and demand, Steve Koonin, chief scientist at BP and a former faculty member at Caltech, said at the recent Clean Tech Investor Summit. The emerging world is consuming more food, and the imbalance has been exacerbated in recent years because of crop failures in the Ukraine and the Midwest.

"Energy is only the most immediate manifestation of a larger problem," which is that other parts of the world are and will demand higher standards of living, he said. Nations and populations will compete over energy, water, food, land, and precious metals, he added.

"This will be the defining challenge of the next couple of decades," he said.

John Podesta, CEO of the think tank Center of American Progress, pointed out that the cost of fuel has exacerbated the situation. Two-thirds of the cost of raising and transporting fuel can be traced to fossil fuels. Thus, when gas goes up, so do Crispy Wheats N' Raisins. China is also experiencing crop yield difficulties.

However, if there is one thing the majority of energy experts agree on, it's that corn ethanol isn't an attractive long-term replacement for gasoline.

"Corn ethanol is a scam," said Wal van Lierop, CEO of Chrysalix Energy Venture Capital.

Purfresh, which used to go by the name Novazone, has tested and now will more actively market a sunscreen for things that come out of the ground.

Called Eclipse, it's a powder made from multicrystalline calcium carbonate. You spray it on onions and other crops to reduce solar stress. Farmers can lose 30 percent or more of their crops to overexposure to the sun, said Purfresh CEO David Cope. The remaining, salable crops can also get damaged and lose some of their value through overexposure. Spray on the powder--which is rated SPF 42--and you can eliminate losses due to in-field sunburn.

The product has mostly been tested in Chile, but the company will try to market it in a variety of regions. It's safe for humans, too.

"It's the same white power you see in chewing gum wrappers," said Cope.

Eclipse is part of the company's plans to become a full-service house for food and water technology. Currently, it mostly earns revenue through its systems that purify bottled water or produce with ozone. The company has 300 customers in 22 countries. While most of the customers are growers, the company is expanding sales to transportation outfits and retailers.

And speaking of ozone, the company has also released a software product, called Intellipure, that monitors food and drinks as they move from harvesting or production to the shelf. This way, if you get poisoned, it's easier to find out where the problem occurred.

Food and water purification is getting to be a big business. Remember all those stories about e coli and spinach? It was the result of improper purification. Australia's Ioteq is coming to this country with a system that purifies harvested produce with iodine. Meanwhile, TyraTech is developing a cheese that kills tapeworms.

It will be delicious, nutritious, and kill tapeworms.

TyraTech, a green technology incubator, is developing a cheese that will be as nutritious as regular food but also kill intestinal parasites, according to CFO Keith Bigsby. The company has signed a deal with Kraft Foods to bring these functional foods to market. Kraft will pay the company engineering fees and, if products come out, royalties from sales. TyraTech is going to try to send me a glass of a drink they are working on for a taste test.

If you are reading this, you probably don't have a tapeworm, but nematodes and other worms remain a major health problem for 2 billion people living in rural Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

TyraTech's product is part of a wave of what some people call nutraceuticals. Basically, these companies produce foods that can provide enhanced nutrition or medicinal properties, according to according to Laurie Yoler, a partner at investment bank GrowthPoint Technology Partners, which recently started to work with companies in the field. While these products will likely be sold as foodstuffs and medical products in the emerging world, they will be largely be marketed as lifestyle products to people in Palo Alto.

Attune Foods, for instance, has come out with a shelf-stable energy bar containing probiotics, the healthy active cultures found in yogurt and acidophilus. Probiotics are big in Europe and Japan and have begun to penetrate the United States. Attune's CEO is Rob Hurlbut, who used to be the CEO of Niman Ranch, the famed producer of natural beef (i.e. no injections).

A chocolate bar with more active cultures than yogurt that costs less than $2? There are a hundred neurotic parents I can name that will line up to buy it now that they know it exists. It actually tastes good, too. After taking the picture at left, I wolfed down the company's cool mint chocolate wellness bar. There's a slightly different aftertaste than regular chocolate, but otherwise it goes down like regular chocolate. Ilya Nykin of Prolog Ventures, which invested in Attune, calls these products functional foods.

TyraTech is also working on biopesticides, which are natural pesticides made from microbes or in TyraTech's case essential plant oils. Organic farmers, and a growing number of conventional farmers, spray these on their crops rather than chemical fertilizer. The organic pesticides are safer for humans, advocates say, and can be sprayed closer to the time of harvest than conventional pesticides. Biopesticides also tend to be safer for field workers.

In the past, biopesticides were often snake oil solutions, according to people in the industry. But the killing power and effectiveness of these mixtures has greatly increased over the years while the price has come down. Other companies in biopesticides include AgraQuest and Marrone Organics.