Maybe the transition from crop-based biofuels, like corn-fed ethanol, to second-generation fuels doesn’t require loads of DOE funding or corporate sugar daddies. Sometimes it just takes some good, old-fashioned pork.

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Feed the feedstock.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports on a Cleveland-area biodiesel plant that’s refitting its machines to make biofuel not out of soy, but from pig fat—or “choice white grease.”

The price of soybeans has rocketed, but not as much as corn—thanks in part to government subsidies to commodity farmers. That’s driven many Midwestern farmers to switch from soy to corn, shrinking the harvest. The pig fat comes from a nearby rendering plant.

“You can’t make any money at all on soybean oil,” John Stamsel, president of the Cleveland plant, told the paper, since feedstock accounts for up to 90% of the cost of making the fuel.

Fatback won’t be the answer for all biodiesel plants, the paper says: Many older facilities can’t be retro-fitted to take other feedstocks. Making animal-fat biodiesel also requires an extra production step. The high price of soy is also starting to push farmers to plant more acres, which should bring prices back down—eventually.

In the meantime, though, politicians can take comfort: Pork isn’t always a dirty word.