Henry Ford's dream was for a car made from plant material and fuelled by plant material. Two decades of research followed. He was motivated by a desire to find a non-food use for agricultural surpluses, and to develop a non-petroleum fuel. In the 1910's he experimented using plant materials, including wheat, in car manufacturing. The 1915 Model T Ford had coil cases made from a wheat gluten resin reinforced with asbestos fibres.

In the 1920's he focussed on soy products, and his company was able to develop uses for soy oil in automobile paints and enamels, in rubber substitutes, and in the production of glycerol for shock absorbers. Henry Ford was interested in converting soy meal, the residue after soy processing, into plastics. Soy meal is approximately 50% protein and 50% carbohydrate ie cellulose. The resin core of the plastic was made when soy meal reacted with formaldehyde to produce cross-linked protein, and for added strength and resistance to moisture, phenol or urea was co-condensed with the soy protein, resulting in a part phenol formaldehyde (or urea formaldehyde) and part cross-linked soy protein resin. Ford used cellulose fibres from hemp, wood pulp, cotton, flax and ramie to provide additional fibres as fillers – up to 50 – 60%.

These plant plastics were used for glove box doors, gear shift knobs, horn buttons, accelerator pedals, distributor heads, interior trim, steering wheels, dashboard panels and finally the entire plastic body. The plastic body withstood blows 10 times as great as steel could without denting. Ford's 'plastic' car weighed 2,300 pounds, which is approximately 2/3s the weight of a steel model of comparable size, and was economically a better alternative.

Unfortunately the new age of non-renewable petrochemicals won out, and the renewable plastics and fuels were sidelined if not completely stopped, by alcohol and hemp legislation in the US.