Offer

An estimated 2,600 litres of vegetable oil was needed to drive the truck all the way from The Hague to Mongolia. This is equal to the amount produced if some two hectares (100 x 300 metre) of, for instance, cole seed is grown. Intensive agriculture yields some 1,300 litres per hectare; in Mongolia this is lower due to less intensive farming.

Photo Jeroen Nooter

Ritual Burning

We ritually burned this offer in the Alas diesel engine of the Hanomag. Herewith we show the yield of two hectares of rapeseed is enough to bring the truck 11.711 km far. While it's using almost as much fuel as a SUV.

Photo Jeroen Nooter

Trail

At an average fuel consumption of 1 over 10, diesel vehicles running on vegetable oil will theoretically consume a 1-mm wide trail of plants across this distance.If you want to utilise vegetable oil as fuel on a large scale, then you will have to expand the production of crops accordingly. Given our position in the world of energy and climate, we want to plant more that we will actually use. During the journey, now and then, we seew a patch of cole seed the size of the truck, in a shape inspired by the local landscape; with the idea that this will create a trail of yellow footprints on the travelled route a year later.

Photo Jeroen Nooter

Plantation in Mongolia

In the summer of 2006 I planted a test field with the seed, which we got from the community of Venlo. It was German seed so it is used to more rain then normally falls in Mongolia. Besides this it was winterseed, which grows normally from late summer until harvest early summer next year. Normally the Mongolian winter is too strong for this.
Nevertheless about 20 % of the plants got flowers and started to grow seeds. Unfortunately some days with unexpected strong frost stopped the growing of the small seeds. Normally the 80 % that is still on the land won't survive the Mongolian winter.

In 2008 me and another Mongolian farmer will try to grow wheat and rapeseed in a special shape, a very big jin-jang. Now I'm again in Mongolia to arrange this.