FLASH BACK to 1928-1941 —-

Henry Ford had a better … super version of bio-plastic AND fuel technology as reported in:
Popular Mechanics Magazine-Pinch Hitters for Defense- Dec. 1941 (vol 76 No.6)
Popular Science Monthly- Mr. Ford Tells of Plans for Stronger Cars- March 1941.
Ford’s Plastic car
-Was made from HEMP, Sisal, and wheat straw.
-Plastic panels were only 3/16ths of an inch thick and could withstand a blow 10x as great as steel
without denting
-Even the windows and windshield were plastic
-Culmination of 12 years prior research by Ford
-Panels were molded under hydraulic pressure of 1,500 pounds per square inch
-Recipe calls for 70% cellulose fiber plus 30% resin binder
-Heat and chemically stable … can be charred at high temps but no amount of heat would ever soften it
again
-Virtually impervious to moisture
-The only steel in the car was its tubular welded frame
-Was a thousand pounds lighter than the comparable steel cars of the day
and was the beginning of his dream coming true of having auto’s “grown from the ground” and another very important quote from Henry Ford- “It will be a car of darn sight better designing in every form” … “And don’t forget: The motor-car business is just one of the businesses that can find new uses from plastics made from what’s grown in the land. There’s no end to what can be done with them IF we know how!”
Funny, this was the dream of a powerful industrialist and not some fly by night cowboy with “fancy” ideas … so the real question or “news” should be if we had this technology ready for production/market way back in the EARLY forties … what could have possible happened to us as a people/scientific body that it’s 2010 and we are JUST tapping “technology” that the very same company was about to market as cutting edge and had over a decade of research under its belt over 60 years ago?
Well I know the answer to that one … Do you? … Really … Check out a blog I wrote about Ford a bit ago and see original footage of Ford taking an axe to a rear panel of his Hemp car at:
http://www.acca-consortium.org/Did-you-Know–.html (towards mid page)

Thank you for reporting on this very important and needed issue (Bio-plastics) but at the same time it is super important to report the truth … the REAL truth and the history/reasoning’s behind it.
Remember: It’s not with the “What’s” that are where the problem really lies … it’s the all important “WHY” that drives yet escapes the most scrutiny.
Peace from Peace