A rapid growth of U.S. renewable diesel production is dramatically altering soybean oil de­­mand and has the potential to change cropping patterns in Iowa and other Corn Belt states, according to speakers at last week’s Chicago Federal Reserve Bank agriculture conference.

“We really have something re­­markable going on right now with renewable diesel,” said Scott Irwin, an ag­ricultural economist with the University of Illinois. The growth in production, he said, “has the potential to parallel the ethanol boom between 2004 and 2010.”

Renewable diesel is a relatively new fuel produced...