Communities are at the heart of agriculture, and agriculture is the heart of communities.  

And now, Wisconsin soybean farmers and their checkoff dollars are making sure those hearts keep pumping with significant investments in SoyFoam TF1122, a firefighting agent devoid of cancer-causing PFAS chemicals.

Dave Garlie, Cross Plains Solutions

During the 2025 Wisconsin Corn•Soy Expo, three experts came together to tout the magnitude of SoyFoam’s benefits during the “Future of Firefighting with SoyFoam” panel on Thursday, Feb. 6.

“About five years ago, a friend of mine who is a firefighter in Minnesota came to me and said, ‘You have to do something about the chemistry in these firefighting foams – it’s killing us,” said Dave Garlie, with Cross Plains Solutions, the company that developed SoyFoam with soy checkoff support.

Though there are still hurdles to jump before SoyFoam is the go-to foam used by firefighters across the country, one fire department in Wisconsin is blazing the trail and ditching traditional firefighting foams with harmful PFAS chemicals for SoyFoam. The Rock Creek Township fire department has completely converted to SoyFoam and Jason Wiley, the fire chief, joined the panel to share his experience, offering advice to others in the industry that might be on the fence. 

“I feel a lot better about my crew using SoyFoam than foams with PFAS,” Wiley said.  

‘Less exposure’ 

Already selflessly willing to jump into danger to help their neighbors, firefighters have an infinite number of hazards to avoid when answering a call. SoyFoam eliminates one of those dangers. 

“It’s one less exposure that I have to worry about,” Wiley explained. 

Developing a solution wasn’t as easy as one, two, three. It required countless formulations and tests, a majority of which ended with chemists walking back to the drawing board. First on the list of problems to solve was how to give the product a longer shelf life. 

“As soon as you mix water with beans, the clock is ticking and it’s going to go rancid by dinnertime,” Garlie explained. “We had to figure out how to get Mother Nature to behave in a bucket.” 

With several hurdles to jump before commercialization, Garlie and Cross Plains worked closely with Chris Turner, an educator and lead technician for Chippewa Valley Technical College’s Fire Safety Center, to develop SoyFoam.

Chris Turner, Chippewa Valley Technical College’s Fire Safety Center

“Does it put out the fire? Does it make a nice blanket and hold the blanket so that it’ll keep the fire out for a while? Those are questions we have to ask and test to make sure it does all those things,” Turner said.   

Why put SoyFoam up against so many tests? 

“When we formulated this product, the last thing we were going to do was take a step back in performance,” Garlie said. “That wasn’t acceptable.” 

Though some fire departments have stopped using foam entirely for health concerns and solely use water, having a safe firefighting foam option is critical. 

“Foam is something to protect it because it seals the fire up,” Wiley said. “Not using foam can be a big handicap and makes it a lot harder to fight the fire.” 

The rigorous testing has paid off. 

“Not only is it PFAS free, but SoyFoam is 100 percent fluorine free,” Turner said. “We’ve all been waiting for a good alternative to PFAS and it’s here.”