Food for the hungry.

Charles E Langley is not a food technician, but he was determined to find a way to feed the hungry. His company, Food Sciences Inc of Jennings, Louisiana, has cracked a problem which many larger companies have been struggling with for years--how to make food grains last longer.

Rice bran is a byproduct of milling, but goes rancid quickly because of its fat content. Langley's process involves removing the fat, so that the bran lasts longer and can be used as flour in baked goods, cereals, baby foods and animal feeds. The flour is high in fibre and protein, and the separation process also provides a healthy and long-lasting cooking oil.

`Rice is the staple food for half the world's population,' Langley points out. `This technology could impact half the people on Earth, feeding the hungry and providing jobs for farmers and in industry. We provide the extractor, but it can be assembled any where. We want to work with people, form joint ventures or farmers' cooperatives, approach governments, offer all the help we can.'

Langley draws his motivation from his faith and believes God has helped his firm through a series of `impossible events'.

`We started with an idea and a few dollars,' he says. `People became interested through casual conversation; people we didn't know got excited and wanted to invest, often just at the right minute.' Some of the profits are channelled to charities.

`One morning we were faced with a technical problem, which we couldn't solve,' recalls Langley. `We prayed that God might help us. The same morning a man walked through the front door, "curious as to what happens here". He was the expert we needed. And don't forget this is Jennings, Louisiana, a town with 8,000 friendly people and a few old codgers. For someone like this to come in was to my mind a miracle.'

The company is now working on developing the technology to make it faster and more economical. Tests have shown that it could be extended to wheat and rape seed, and thus cover most of the other half of the world population. As the worldwide demand for edible vegetable oils now exceeds production capacity, Langley's process comes at just the right time.