Another Piece of the Puzzle

What happens to the crops from our fields after they go to the elevator? Here's an inside look at another section of the food-supply chain.

Last night, Jeff, Tom and I attended an open house at a newly opened pulse grain processing facility near Chester. The plant was formerly an aging grain elevator, poised for decline in business after the opening of two huge, brand new elevators in the area within the past year or so.  This factor combined with increasing bushels of pulse crops grown in the area made the elevator a good fit for the upgrade.

The elevator will now accept solely pulse crops-- yellow and green peas, chickpeas, and lentils, for example.  Green peas and lentils, specifically, will be processed within the facility. On the tour, I was able to snap quite a few photos and create this sort of photo tour.

It's hard to get an idea of the size of the plant from only these interior shots. It was dark outside already when we arrived, so I didn't bother taking any photos of the exterior.

Basically what happens is, farmers cut their crop in late summer and haul it to the elevator. At the elevator, it is processed and packaged before being shipped out to buyers around the world.  The night of the open house, they were processing lentils.  The first step was for sensors to identify off-color lentils and flush them out.  Tiny puffs of air separated individual lentil kernels from the whole.  We were told the off color kernels (and other "unusable" kernals, basically any kernels that didn't fit the quality standards) were separated out and are primarily used in gluten-free pet food.

Next, the lentils went through a series of large machines that cleaned out chaff and small rocks:

Jeff sticks his hand into the (not-running) machine, to give an idea of scale.

The machine in action. Lentils pour in onto this large tray with holes in it.
The holes are sized such that unwanted pieces fall through and the lentils stay on top.

After the cleaning process, the lentils are filled into 55lb bags and machine-stitched closed.

Finished bags of grain.
These are two of the company's premier products: Emerald Empire Lentils and "Natures Choice" green peas.

A robotic arm stacks bags of lentils onto pallets.

Pallets are eventually loaded onto boxcars and away they go!

 I found it interesting to see how product we raise in this area is handled after we drop it off at the elevator.  Several other reasons I am excited about the facility include:

• Encouragement of crop diversity beyond wheat
• The facility creates a few more jobs for the area
• The building was "recycled" for a new purpose, rather than left abandoned.

They served lentil chili for dinner, which was really yummy!

Some samples of pulse grains this facility could take.
A few varieties of lentils, yellow peas, and green peas.

Pulse crops are destined primarily for human consumption.  Yellow peas (which Jeff and I grew for the first time this past season) and chickpeas are primarily ground into flour. India is the major buyer for these. Green peas and lentils are often unaltered after leaving a facility like the one in Chester. One company in the Philippines uses green peas to make a snack food.  

Philippino snack food, anyone?  

A sample of green peas used to impress buyers all around the world.

The marketing pitch from company representative was a little over the top and hard to swallow at times. I kept hearing the words to the old song "Sixteen Tons" as he spoke about contracts... "I owe my soul to the company store..." and seeing visions of Monopoly properties and price control... But if you can attend the presentation and read between the lines, you're OK in the end. Overall, it was a really interesting night.  The processing was really interesting and the global nature of the food supply was, too.  We will likely not contract with this elevator ahead of time, but, happily, we will still be able to bring our peas here if we need to or want to. In all, another piece of the food supply chain puzzle was filled in for me, and I can seldom pass up an opportunity to learn.