Risking your life to save another should never backfire.
That’s why Minnesota Soybean leaders are making sure it doesn’t with SoyFoam, a key investment in their communities and the people who help make them a better place.
Unifying two community backbones to reduce the risk of cancer, the number one cause of death among firefighters, the farmer-led Minnesota Soybean Research & Promotion Council is excited to announce the launch of its statewide, checkoff-supported SoyFoam campaign, “Planting to Protect: From Farm to Flame.”
Made with soy flour, SoyFoam is the first and only Greenscreen Certified Gold Fire Foam with no intentionally added PFAS, aka forever chemicals. Cross Plains Solutions, the developer of SoyFoam, has been in lockstep with the Council to continue testing and promoting the product as a safer alternative to traditional firefighting foam.
“There are nine required burns, and SoyFoam can put out all nine burns,” said Dave Garlie of Cross Plains Solutions, referring to ongoing federal regulations during a SoyFoam panel discussion at MN Ag Expo in January 2025.
SoyFoam is compatible with existing foam inductors and aerating nozzles and is comparable in cost to traditional firefighting foam. With a shelf life of 10 years, SoyFoam can be frozen, heated and thawed and will still be fully functional.
“For our soybean farmers, your checkoff investment is helping out the environment and the firefighters who use it,” said Council Chair Tom Frisch, who has served on the Dumont Fire Department since 2000. “It’s a checkoff investment that is coming to fruition and helping build demand. For our firefighters, rural, city or anywhere in Minnesota, providing a PFAS free alternative is our goal and for the public in general, homegrown, renewable products benefit all of us.”
MSR&PC will provide funding and communications support to encourage counties to donate five pails of SoyFoam to their respective fire departments.
“It’s extremely important that this new product gets into the hands of firefighters across the state,” said Mike Youngerberg, Minnesota Soybean’s sr. director of product development and commercialization. “While our distribution campaign will first focus on rural fire departments, we will also be working to touch as many Minnesota fire departments as possible to get the product in their hands as well.”
‘Win-win’
This basketball season, Minnesota Soybean teamed with the University of Minnesota men’s basketball program to “Extinguish the Run,” during games this season. For each game the Gophers stopped an opposing team’s scoring run, the soy checkoff donated a bucket of SoyFoam to a fire department in Minnesota. Those donations will coincide with work the soy checkoff plans this summer as it takes its SoyFoam messaging on the road, attending events across the state to further promote this key checkoff investment.
“With the timely and smart investment of soybean checkoff dollars with commercial partners who can bring a safer, soy-based product to the market, this is a win-win for farmers, firefighters and the environment as well,” Youngerberg said.
For more information on the SoyFoam Planting to Protect: From Farm to Flame campaign, visit https://mnsoybean.org/msrpc/soyfoam/
Minnesota Soybean Research & Promotion Council news release
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