For about a year, Ford has been touring the country with a marketing program, Fusion Meets Fusion. The initiative allows the carmaker to explain how it uses sustainable food sources to replace plastic and rubber in cars like the fuel-efficient Fusion sedan.
Like in other locales, the Sacramento presentation was offered at an established local restaurant, Mulvaney’s B&L in midtown Sacramento. Restaurant co-owner and chef Patrick Mulvaney prepared a family-style meal incorporating soybeans, wheat straw, coconut and dandelion greens.
Dandelion greens were used in the spring greens salad and whole wheat fettuccine; wheat straw was an ingredient in hay-scented chicken; soybeans were used in the salad served with salmon; coconut was prominent in the crème brulee dessert.
Carrie Majeske, Ford’s manager of product sustainability, explained the carmaker’s program. The manufacturer and Scotts Miracle-Gro Company are researching the use of coconut fiber reinforcement in Ford’s molded plastic parts to reduce the use of petroleum. Correspondingly, the parts would be lighter and more natural looking.
According to marketing information, Ford was the first carmaker to use soy-based polyols to make foam for its cars. The manufacturer reports it reduces its petroleum use by five million pounds annually and its carbon dioxide emission by 20 million pounds annually via its use of foam.
For additional information about the Fusion Meets Fusion program or the 2013 Ford Fusion, visit: www.fordfusionstory.com.
Article Last Updated: March 5, 2013.
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A sports, travel and business journalist for more than 45 years, James has written the new car review column The Weekly Driver since 2004.
In addition to founding this site in 2004, James writes a Sunday automotive column for The San Jose Mercury and East Bay Times in Walnut Creek, Calif., and monthly auto review and wellness columns for Gulfshore Business, a magazine in Southwest Florida.
An author and contributor to many newspapers, magazines and online publications, co-hosted The Weekly Driver Podcast from 2017 to 2024.
