Seattle Times
Biodiesel backers rally around movie
Rami Grunbaum, deputy business editor, and Seattle Times Business staff
Biofuels derived from agricultural products are currently under fire amid rising food prices and doubts about their environmental benefits. But this week, area biodiesel enthusiasts will fight back — at the Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF).
"Fields of Fuel", a documentary advocating the wider adoption of biodiesel, will screen at the Harvard Exit theater on Capitol Hill on Wednesday at 7 p.m. and Thursday at 4.30 p.m. Director Josh Tickell is scheduled to attend both showings of what the SIFF catalog calls a "fiercely populist" film.Local biofuel lovers will also join biodiesel car caravans ending at the Harvard Exit on Tuesday, and before the Wednesday screening.
The car parades will depart Tuesday at 6 p.m. and Wednesday at noon from Dr. Dan's Alternative Fuelwerks, 912 N.W. 50th St. in Ballard.
The finish line will be at the Harvard Exit. Participants aren't limited to biodiesel cars — hybrids and any other alternative-fuel vehicles are also welcome to join, said Rebecca Harrell, marketing director for Josh Tickell Productions.
Amid all the troubles affecting the alternative-fuels industry, the movie demonstrates to biodiesel enthusiasts "why we need to hang in there," said Nikola Davidson, president of the Northwest Biofuels Association. (She got a sneak preview of the film in February.)
Winnie Khoo, assistant marketing director for Tickell Productions, acknowledges that biofuels are "having a rough time right now." As for blaming increased production of biodiesel and ethanol for soaring grain prices, she says the film's producers are "advocates of nonfood sources to make biodiesel and also using marginal lands."
— Ángel González