Biodiesel and the Celebrities

As Biodiesel, the replacement for petroleum diesel made from vegetable and animal oils and fats becomes more popular, not only environmentalists have been making biodiesel in their own backyards, basements and bathtubs, some of them for years, but they also have promoted the fuel at a grass-roots level attracting the attention of many celebrities engaged in environmental movements.

Biodiesel growers have joined with celebrity biodiesel advocates just like actress Daryl Hannah to help with their publicity campaign. Hanna is best known as an environmentalist who fills her 1983 Chevrolet El Camino with biodiesel. "Soybean farmers need to give some serious thought to their use of GMO seeds" said Hannah early this 2005 during NBB meeting. "I can understand the huge temptation to move toward GMOs, but we lack a complete understanding of the effects of GMOs and fertilizers."

Daryl Hannah has been working with Colorado-based Grassolean Solutions, founded by her friend Charris Ford, to help entrepreneurs and co-ops and to set up biodiesel filling stations. Hanna and Ford have also been collaborating on upcoming Discovery Channel television series about organic lifestyles, which will feature segments about biodiesel fuel, currently piloting the new series called Amped Up.

Country singer, Willie Nelson is another Biodiesel enthusiast and supporter. The Willie Nelson Biodiesel Company partnership was established this past December 2004 with the idea of doing something useful for the country, the American family farmer, the economy and the environment. Since then Nelson's posters on billboards alerting truckers to a biodiesel option has been seen in different routes, including the Interstate 35 near Hillsboro, Texas.

This way, Family farmers growing fuel for America and the World started business that aims to getting truckers on board. "On the Road Again" means something new for Willie Nelson these days, as Matt Curry of the Associated Press reported, "this is a chance for truckers to fill their tanks with clean-burning biodiesel fuel".

Bill Mack "The Satellite Cowboy" of XM Radio 171 partnered with 71-year-old Willie Nelson giving him air time to talk one on one with the independent truckers about Biodiesel. The fuel, called BioWillie, is made from vegetable oils, mainly soybeans, and can be burned without modification to diesel engines.