Farm to flight: A transformative opportunity for Minnesota’s waters

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The number of air travelers is expected to double by 2050. Accommodating more passengers means burning more fuel. At the same time, airlines have pledged to significantly shrink their emissions over that same period — a decarbonization high-wire act that everyone should cheer on.

To make this math work, industry leaders are counting on the quick emergence of sustainable aviation fuel, or “SAF.” It’s fuel made from something that is less carbon-intensive than crude oil. All SAF has to meet a 50% reduction in lifecycle emissions, compared with fossil fuel.

But reducing emissions isn’t enough. If businesses and policymakers want to champion SAF as truly sustainable, they need to prioritize investments in feedstocks that effectively address our most pressing environmental challenges.

Thanks to some recent developments, we know what that might look like: The Delta flight that flew out of Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport in September, landing safely in New York for Climate Week. It marked a watershed moment as the first North American commercial flight powered by a fuel made partly from Minnesota-grown winter camelina.

Camelina is one of two winter-hardy oilseeds being developed by scientists at the University of Minnesota’s Forever Green Initiative. Among their many uses, oilseeds make excellent jet fuel, with multiple studies showing a remarkably low carbon intensity, or low “emissions per gallon.” It has the added benefit of working with existing airplane engines, so no expensive retrofitting is required.

It’s where and when these oilseeds are grown that make them particularly promising for sustainability.

Drive around Minnesota from late October through early May, and you’ll see the opportunity to add new crops to the millions of acres that sit empty and unutilized every year. It is in this very window from fall to late spring that winter oilseeds grow.

The current lack of soil cover over the winter is the main driver of the state’s most vexing water-quality crises: High nitrate levels are endangering Minnesota’s drinking water, drawing the ire of the EPA and putting human health at risk. Half of the state’s bodies of water fail to meet basic water-quality standards.

With living roots in the ground during the winter and spring months, these new crops take up unabsorbed fertilizer and keep rich topsoil from easily washing into our waters with snowmelt and heavy rain. Growing in the fall-to-spring gap, they transform the typically bare cropland into an expanse of green plants that protect surface waters and groundwater.

With continued development, winter oilseeds could partner well with corn and soybeans grown in summer on the same acreage. Research shows that having winter-hardy oilseeds on a quarter of the state’s existing cropland would make real progress in reducing the state’s runaway levels of nitrate pollution — a feat none of the existing incentives, best practices or other approaches have been able to accomplish. Soil loss would drop considerably, keeping sediment out of lakes and rivers.

Importantly, using winter oilseeds for sustainable aviation fuel would help farmers diversify their operations with in-demand crops. This reduces risk and opens up a new source of revenue without requiring more land or displacing moneymaking summer crops.

By investing in winter oilseeds, Minnesota would have lower aviation emissions, cleaner water, healthier farms and more vibrant agricultural communities, all in one fell swoop.

This is a rare opportunity: For Minnesota to lead the way on how to maximize the sustainability of SAF. For airlines to meet or exceed their voluntary emissions-reduction goals. And, for all of us collectively, to fix some of the most complex, stubborn water-quality issues of our time.

Here’s what’s needed. We need public funding that will supercharge continued crop research and development. We need to reduce the risk for farmers so they can adopt these new crops. We need policies that provide real incentives for airlines to source fuels that are both low-carbon and benefit soil, water and wildlife. And we need industry leaders to invest in oilseeds in both the short and long terms.

Whitney Clark is executive director at Friends of the Mississippi River. Nick Jordan is co-director of Forever Green at the University of Minnesota College of Food, Agriculture and Natural Resource Sciences.