There’s nothing like a fresh, juicy Florida orange. But diseases gobble up citrus groves. Is the Sunshine State waving goodbye to orange and grapefruit trees?
A new tree stands ready to replace citrus. Well, actually it’s an old tree. An ancient tree, in fact. It comes from India, Southeast Asia, and Australia. It’s called pongamia. Instead of fruit, it grows little brown beans.
Which would you take—oranges or beans? What if we told you the little beans are so bitter even wild hogs won’t eat them? That should be easy: Give us oranges!
But pongamia has its perks too. The trees don’t need much attention. They don’t need fertilizers. The bitter taste acts as a natural pesticide. Drought? Rain? Pongamia can handle both. And farmers don’t need workers to pick the beans. A machine shakes them from the branches at harvest time.
But why would people want the bitter beans at all? Because they don’t stay bitter. A company called Terviva removes the parts that cause the bitter taste. The beans can then be used to make protein-rich food.
This is good news for farmers who have lost many valuable citrus trees. Pongamia could grow on hundreds of thousands of acres.
People turn the wild tree beans into cooking oil. They add bean powder to snack bars and flours. There are also non-food uses for these beans. They can be turned into airplane fuel!
And don’t forget the pollinators. Bees and other pollinators feast on the pongamia’s flowers.
Why? An orange looks tastier and more useful than a bitter brown bean. But people can use creativity to bring value from something that appears useless.