ADM, Marathon Oil Soybean Crush Plant in Middle of Startup in Spiritwood

Nov 16, 2023

By Todd Neeley

Archer Daniels Midland and Marathon Oil officially opened a soybean processing plant in Spiritwood, North Dakota, this week in a joint venture that will provide a new market for soybean farmers and provide oil feedstocks to Marathon to produce renewable diesel.

Officials from both companies were on hand earlier this week for a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Green Bison Soy Processing plant, which is an ADM (75%) and Marathon (25%) joint venture.

Green Bison Soy Processing began receiving soybeans in September of 2023 and is in the commissioning and startup phase of processing soybeans for meal and oil.

The plant will source and process local soybeans, according to a news release from the companies, with the resulting oil supplied exclusively to Marathon as a feedstock for renewable fuels.

The facility is expected to produce about 600 million pounds of refined soybean oil annually, enough feedstock for around 75 million gallons of renewable green diesel per year.

The $350 million complex features state-of-the-art automation technology and has the capacity to process 150,000 bushels of soybeans per day, according to the companies.

A second project, a 42.5-million-bushel crushing plant operated by North Dakota Soybean Processors, is expected to be fully operational in Casselton in 2024. That plant is a joint venture between CGB Enterprises Inc. and Minnesota Soybean Processors.

The companies said the Green Bison plant has supported "hundreds" of jobs in the region and currently employs about 75 workers.

"Sustainability is one of the enduring trends driving changes in structural global demand, and this investment helps position ADM, as a leader in our industry, to deliver on that demand," said Greg Morris, president of ADM's ag services and oilseeds business.

"The continued growth in demand for renewable green diesel presents a transformative opportunity for the oilseed industry, for producers and for increasing the sustainability footprint of our transportation system."

Dave Heppner, Marathon's senior vice president of strategy and business development, said in a statement the Spiritwood plant is an important milestone in the company's future.

"As we continue challenging ourselves to lead in sustainable energy, our joint venture with ADM not only strengthens our presence in North Dakota, but also gives us the opportunity to collaborate further with a world-class partner as we continue investing in a sustainable, energy-diverse future," he said.

"Green Bison Soy Processing's Spiritwood facility is an important milestone in our ability to source and optimize logistically advantaged feedstock for our growing renewable fuels business."

ADM and Marathon Oil announced their project back in May 2021.

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Video: Why Your Food Future Could be Trapped in a Seed Morgue

In a world of PowerPoint overload, Rex Bernardo stands out. No bullet points. No charts. No jargon. Just stories and photographs. At this year’s National Association for Plant Breeding conference on the Big Island of Hawaii, he stood before a room of peers — all experts in the science of seeds — and did something radical: he showed them images. He told them stories. And he asked them to remember not what they saw, but how they felt.

Bernardo, recipient of the 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award, has spent his career searching for the genetic treasures tucked inside what plant breeders call exotic germplasm — ancient, often wild genetic lines that hold secrets to resilience, taste, and traits we've forgotten to value.

But Bernardo didn’t always think this way.

“I worked in private industry for nearly a decade,” he recalls. “I remember one breeder saying, ‘We’re making new hybrids, but they’re basically the same genetics.’ That stuck with me. Where is the new diversity going to come from?”

For Bernardo, part of the answer lies in the world’s gene banks — vast vaults of seed samples collected from every corner of the globe. Yet, he says, many of these vaults have quietly become “seed morgues.” “Something goes in, but it never comes out,” he explains. “We need to start treating these collections like living investments, not museums of dead potential.”

That potential — and the barriers to unlocking it — are deeply personal for Bernardo. He’s wrestled with international policies that prevent access to valuable lines (like North Korean corn) and with the slow, painstaking science of transferring useful traits from wild relatives into elite lines that farmers can actually grow. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. But he’s convinced that success starts not in the lab, but in the way we communicate.

“The fact sheet model isn’t cutting it anymore,” he says. “We hand out a paper about a new variety and think that’s enough. But stories? Plants you can see and touch? That’s what stays with people.”

Bernardo practices what he preaches. At the University of Minnesota, he helped launch a student-led breeding program that’s working to adapt leafy African vegetables for the Twin Cities’ African diaspora. The goal? Culturally relevant crops that mature in Minnesota’s shorter growing season — and can be regrown year after year.

“That’s real impact,” he says. “Helping people grow food that’s meaningful to them, not just what's commercially viable.”

He’s also brewed plant breeding into something more relatable — literally. Coffee and beer have become unexpected tools in his mission to make science accessible. His undergraduate course on coffee, for instance, connects the dots between genetics, geography, and culture. “Everyone drinks coffee,” he says. “It’s a conversation starter. It’s a gateway into plant science.”