For Nebraska's corn farmers, every day is Earth Day.

For Nebraska's corn farmers, every day is Earth Day.

Nebraska corn farmers have a first-hand understanding of Earth Day. Who else can claim to be an environmentalist, as well as a wildlife, water and soil conservationist while being an economist, weatherman, marketer and communicator?

The recognition of Earth Day should include farmers. While it is a day that was started to inspire awareness and a better appreciation of the environment, it should include the contributions made by farmers every year. 

We are also proud to celebrate Earth Day with ethanol. Another way to participate on Earth Day, that is both environmentally friendly and easier on your wallet, is to fill up your vehicle with a renewable fuel, such as ethanol. Ethanol has been proven to reduce tailpipe carbon monoxide by as much as 30 percent and also reduces particulate matter up to 50 percent. 

We can also celebrate Earth Day with corn-based PLA -- polylactic acid -- because it is clean, green and renewable, and it replaces petroleum-based alternatives. Since PLA is produced from corn at a plant in Blair, Nebraska, it's nice to feature it here from time to time (that's local, folks!). 

Nebraska corn contributing to a zero-waste Olympics

Being that the Winter Olympics are one year from now, corn grown in Nebraska can brag they it was part of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.

Not only were the London games some of the most memorable games, last year’s summer Olympics also were the first to be zero waste with an estimated 8,500 tons of packaging and food service items diverted from landfills and into a composting facility or recycling centers. Within that total, an estimated 14.3 million Ingeo lined paper cups and 7.5 million Ingeo cup lids were composted.

What is Ingeo? It is the biopolymer made from poly-lactic acid (PLA), otherwise known as corn plastic. The only plant in the world, NatureWorks, is located in Blair, Nebraska and sources corn and other plant material from Nebraska and neighboring states to create plant-based plastic that is otherwise made from oil. The company is growing and will be expanding as they recently announced Thailand as the preferred location for a second manufacturing plant.

Back to the Summer Olympics, sustainability was at the heart of the vision for the Games to make it the first ‘zero-waste’ games. As part of this vision, London BioPackaging was chosen to supply all the food and drink packaging. They supplied in excess of 120 million pieces of compostable and recyclable packaging, ensuring it was all composted or recycled after use.

Nebraska corn could play a role in the upcoming 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia as well. You may remember that the Olympic Gold Medalist, Curt Tomasevicz, is a spokesman for the Nebraska Corn Board and will hopefully be returning with the Team Night Train to go for the Gold in Russia. Maybe we can get Curt to take a little of Nebraska’s Gold – Corn – along with him!

Video | New uses of corn

Uses for corn stretch beyond the dining table.

Nebraska Corn Board's director of research, Kelly Brunkhorst, shares in this video about all of the different uses for corn. We traditionally think of using corn for livestock feed or to make corn-based ethanol - a renewable fuel.

Kelly explains there are other uses like biochemicals, bioplastics, CO2,  fabrics, sweeteners and more. Click play on the video to watch:

Taiwan shows producers long-standing market for U.S. corn, DDGS

The role of the 2010 Corn Mission in Taiwan was to maintain important relationships with key traders, users and buyers of U.S. corn and DDGS. Additional, it demonstrated to the corn producers from Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and Missouri of the long-standing market that remains for corn in the small country.

Since having a presence in Taiwan for 37 years, the U.S. Grain Council’s (USGC) hard work at gaining market share has proved successful in gaining the fourth largest market of U.S. corn in the world.

The mission in Taiwan started with a briefing on the market by USGC/Taiwan staff, as well as an update from Jeffrey Hesse, Chief of Agricultural Affairs of the American Institute in Taiwan. As Taiwan is a very large market for U.S. corn, the focus of USGC/Taiwan is primarily market defense, with strategic elements including maintaining and increasing U.S. sales, livestock production and feed consumption and DDGS education and promotion.

The group was able to have a large seminar meeting with traders, buyers and users of U.S. corn and DDGS. Mike Callahan, USGC senior director of international operations, gave an overview of the 2010 U.S. corn crop quality and what they could expect to see coming in the corn and DDGS in Taiwan. The group was very glad to hear of this positive report yet did have questions on if the corn exported from certain areas/states were better quality, and would like to see similar data from the last five years.

A trip outside of Taipei took the delegation to Good Flag Biotechnology Corporation in Taoyuan to tour the manufacturing facility where corn-plastic, PLA (polylactic acid) cups and containers are made. The PLA resin is imported to Taiwan from the NatureWorks facility in Blair, Neb., then fabricated in the facility to large rolls of plastic sheets. They form the cups and containers from these rolls and customize the cups with specific printing for their customers – some of which are domestic, but companies in the U.S. are their largest customer.

On Saturday, the group traveled to Fwu Sow Industry – one of the major feed mills in Taiwan that imports U.S. corn and DDGS for their livestock and pet animal feeds. Fwu Sow has a close relationship with USGC and valued the producers’ remarks about the higher quality 2010 corn crop. We also visited the Shin Show Hog Farm but were not allowed to go inside the barns of 3,000 head due to biosecurity issues. It was still worthwhile learning about the hog feeds this farmer utilizes with U.S. corn and DDGS, and how he markets his pork to a niche audience.

The Taiwan traders, buyers and users of U.S. corn were very cordial to the delegation, and were positive about the 2010 corn crop because of the good working relationship with USGC/Taiwan. Some recent market share has been lost to countries like Argentina and Brazil, but the U.S. corn’s quality is far superior and the delegation confirming the 2010 crop’s quality was important.

“Taiwan has been a stable, but significant market for U.S. corn,” said John Whaley, director on the Indiana Corn Marketing Board. “Even though some recent market share has been lost, they are still importing the bulk of their corn from the U.S. With the good quality 2010 corn crop from the U.S., some of that lost market should be gained back.”

Continue catching up with the delegation through pictures on Flickr.

State Fair provides education for all ages

This year’s Nebraska State Fair allowed fairgoers to be surrounded by agriculture. This last Thursday, the Nebraska Corn Board sponsored two groups to come and give presentations on the stage in the Exhibition Hall near the ag exhibits.

As Thursday was the fair’s “Largest Classroom Day”, the first presentation brought in a lot of children as the gals from Nebraska Agriculture In The Classroom presented on the “'A’maize’ing Corn Plant”.


Ellen Hellerich, state coordinator for Nebraska Ag In The Classroom, gave an excellent presentation on where kids could find corn in their household items. She explained how the corn we see grown in fields is used to feed livestock and make ethanol, and is different from the corn we like to eat off of the cob.

She also finished the presentation with an educational activity where the kids could make “Corn Babies” - or a plastic bag with a wet cotton ball and corn seed - to see how corn grows. Kids were able to tie these to a string and carry them on their neck all day.




Later in the day came education for the adult crowd. Marge Lauer, from the Kearney Area Ag Producers Alliance, or KAAPA, presented on the opportunities that KAAPA offers to its members and the surrounding communities. She explained how those involved with KAAPA have the opportunity to produce, or invest in, value-added agriculture. Specifically, Marge talked about how the KAAPA Ethanol plant was started and how they are working on a new venture now that creates a corn plastic, PLA, made from distillers grains – the co-product of ethanol production.  

We want to thank the Nebraska Ag In The Classroom and KAAPA for coming out to the State Fair to give their presentations! You can find more pictures on our Flickr site, or click here.

Corn-based PLA helps develop bio-material industry, clean the environment in Taiwan

While in Taiwan last week as part of a trade mission, Alan Tiemann, a farmer from Seward and chairman of the Nebraska Corn Board, had an opportunity here a presentation by Shao-Chung Tien, the special assistant to the chairman of Wei Mon Industry Co., Ltd. (For a bit in English, click here.)

Shao-Chung Tien pointed out that Nebraska corn is the raw material for making PLA resins in Blair, Nebraska, and it is PLA resins that have helped develop the bio-material industry in Taiwan and China, according to a report from the U.S. Grains Council's Clover Chang, director of its Taiwan office.

Shao-Chung Tien also expressed an appreciation for the Council's programs in helping develop this environmental friendly industry in Taiwan and that his company will continue to buy PLA resins from Nebraska.

The trade delegation had an opportunity to visit Wei Mon and Good Flag Biotechnology Corporation to see the process of converting corn-based PLA resin into cups and food containers. Chang said the delegation members were impressed by the process and that the U.S. corn product is helping develop bio-material industry and clean the environment in Taiwan.

Alan Tiemann (in the white shirt on the right) and other delegates
of the trade team view part of the process of converting corn-based PLA
into consumer products at Good Flag Biotechnology Corporation
in Taiwan (click to enlarge).

Turning corn into cups, bags

The headline for this post comes from an article by Ross Boettcher that appeared in the Sunday Omaha World Herald that featured a profile of the NatureWorks plant in Blair – the plant where they turn corn into small, plastic-like beads that are used in everything from chip bags to cups to clothing.

The plant recently added a second manufacturing line so it has the capacity to produce 300 million pounds a year. One bushel of corn produces 22 pounds of the beads, which means the plant can use up to 13.6 million bushels of corn per year.

Here's the intro from the OWH article (read the full article here):

Next time you pick up a bag of Frito-Lay's Sun Chips, you'll notice — or hear — something different about the product's packaging.

Instead of the muffled ruffle of typical chip bags, Frito-Lay's recently deployed package sounds more like hundreds of aluminum cans being squashed under a boot.

There's a reason, and a reward, for the noisy bag. It's fully compostable, thanks to a renewable, plant-based plastic manufactured in Blair, Neb., by NatureWorks, a Cargill subsidiary.

NatureWorks doesn't actually make the Sun Chips bags, which were announced on Earth Day in 2009 and introduced on Earth Day this year.

Instead, the Blair company makes tiny, plasticlike beads from the starch in corn, and then sells them to packaging firms or companies such as Frito-Lay, Coca-Cola, Target and Toyota. Those companies turn the beads, whose trade name is Ingeo, into products like chip bags, plastic drink cups, food containers, floor mats for vehicles and other products normally made with petroleum-based plastics.

For previous posts we've done on these kinds of products made from corn, click on one of the headlines below:

Corn-based PLA turning up in more places

Sun Chips: There's a bit of Nebraska in that compostable bag

You can’t have Christmas without corn!

Your corn is calling

Corn-based PLA turning up in more places

Corn-basd PLA -- polylactic acid -- is clean, green and renewable, and it replaces petroleum-based alternatives. Since PLA is produced from corn at a plant in Blair, Nebraska, it's nice to feature it here from time to time.

Today being Earth Day, it makes sense to feature it again, even though PLA cups were featured yesterday and those snack chip bags a couple of weeks ago. Oh, heck. Just click here for all the PLA posts. (One of my favorites is "Your corn is calling.")

Today's PLA product came as a surprise during a recent trip to the grocery store. We needed some margarine. And there, before my eyes, was Fleischmann's margarine with a tamper band made from EarthFirst PLA. This wasn't hidden or just saying "made with PLA" -- it proudly proclaimed "made from corn."

Sure, there were lots of margarine brands on the shelf.

But can you guess which one found it's way into my basket?

We're seeing PLA turn up in more and more places -- and that's just the beginning of things that can be made from corn and other ag products to replace those currently made from petroleum.

Compostable cups make their way to Nebraska FFA chapters

When FFA chapters from across Nebraska gathered in Lincoln for their convention a couple of weeks ago, many had the opportunity to pick up a case or two of compostable cups courtesy of the Nebraska Corn Board.

The Nebraska Corn Board produced and donated the cups (more than 18,000 in total!) to most FFA chapters in the state, who can then use them for their own annual meetings.

The compostable cups are, of course, made of PLA, or polylactic acid. PLA is produced from corn at a plant in Blair, Nebraska. (Have you seen an ad for compostable snack chip bags? Those are made of PLA, too. Click here!)

This was the first time the board donated PLA cups to the chapters, but it is a great way to reach out to the next generation -- and to their parents and farmers who are involved in FFA.

Sun Chips: There's a bit of Nebraska in that compostable bag

Have you seen the commercial of the Sun Chips bag breaking down in a compost pile before giving way to a green plant growing above? If so, you've witnessed a bit of Nebraska. (If not, click here, as Frito-Lay has the commercial online.)

How so?

Well, that 100 percent compostable snack-sized bag is made from PLA -- PLA that is produced from corn at the NatureWorks plant in Blair, Nebraska.

PLA stands for polylactic acid, a pretty versatile resin that can be used in everything from gift cards to coffee cups, from packaging to fabrics - and more. All in all, it's a pretty handy polymer that replaces non-renewable, petroleum-based products like polyethylene and polypropylene.

As Frito-Lay noted in materials about the new Sun Chips bag (click here - .pdf):

PLA is made from lactic acid. Lactic acid is made from dextrose by fermentation. Dextrose is made from starch and starch is made from carbon dioxide and water. Because it’s made with plants that grow annually instead of petroleum (which takes millions of years to form) the impact on greenhouse gases is much lower.

NatureWorks LLC has trademarked this material with the name Ingeo(TM), and this new biopolymer is the world’s first and only performance plastic made from 100% annually renewable resources. Corn-based Ingeo biopolymer offers the cost and performance necessary to compete with traditional petroleum–based materials in the packaging and serviceware markets. Frito–Lay has worked closely throughout the packaging supply chain to develop a way to use this material for our package.

The new 100 percent compostable Sun Chips bag are rolling out to stores across the country by the end of April (by Earth Day, as noted in the commercial that aired during the Super Bowl), although existing snack-size bags (10.5 oz) are already one-third PLA, the company said last year.

Early reviews of the bags have been very positive - although some folks say the bags are noisier than the old ones. As the Sun Chips noted in this Twitter post, though, a little noise is a fair trade off for a lot greener package.

For more on PLA:

• You can’t have Christmas without Corn!
• Your corn is calling
• Cups of corn in Indiana's Government Center
• Corn cups for iced coffee
• Film crew coming to Seward

You can’t have Christmas without corn!

Do you eat corn for Christmas dinner? Or give it away all wrapped up in pretty wrapping paper? Many may say, “no”, when in actuality, there is a very high chance you will consume corn in one fashion or another during the holiday season.

First, your main dish – maybe a ham or beef roast or lamb. Those hogs, steers and market lambs almost certainly were fed corn and/or distillers grains (a coproduct of ethanol production) and displayed in the grocery store in containers made from corn bioplastics.

Personally, my family eats fish (lutefisk to be exact -- from Sweden). Lutefisk is probably not fed corn as it is from the ocean, but many varieties of farm-raised fish are fed corn or ethanol coproducts, and according to panelists at the National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research (NCAUR), they concluded that fish filets coming from fish fed byproducts of ethanol production, were great-tasting and a common holiday food.

Next, you may see fresh, frozen or canned corn as the star in many Christmas side dishes. A delicious corn pudding or cheesy corn-and-grits casserole for a Southern-style side, or corn scalloped in a rich creamy sauce could complement your Christmas meal. These are all common ways you may consume corn, but just wait…there is more.
Many of the packaging products used to process or store the food items for your meal are corn plastic called PLA (polylactic acid), which is made from corn starch and is 100% renewable and compostable. Cups, utensils, bowls, plates, deli containers, milk, water and juice bottles, candy wrappers and more all utilize corn PLA. This list goes on and on and new uses are being developed every day.

If you do your shopping at Walmart, you’re more than likely going to find PLA as well. Wal-Mart plans to use 114 million PLA containers a year, which company executives estimate will save 800,000 barrels of oil annually.

What about other corn products? High fructose corn syrup is found in your soda pop and many other products as a sweetener, cornstarch is found in pudding and ready-to-eat foods, dextrose improves the color and texture of breads and is found in peanut butter and sorbitol, which is used in the toothpaste you’ll need after eating your big meal and holiday snacks! Maltodextrin, another corn product, is found in instant tea, coffee and oatmeal.

After you’ve enjoyed your scrumptious Christmas meal, everyone knows what’s next…PRESENTS! Many gifts are made from corn PLA, instead of plastic made from oil, and even wrapped in paper made from PLA. iTunes or REI gift cards, Cargo Cosmetics packaging, batteries for the remote control cars, crayons, medicines, disposable diapers and baby wipes and adhesives all have corn as an ingredient in one way or another. That Samsung Reclaim cell phone you got for your significant other, is, in fact, a 'green' phone made from corn PLA bioplastics.

Corn-based clothing is also catching on, and can be found in upholstery, bedding, pillows, and high-end fashion fabrics. Even your carpet that is getting covered up by all of the opened presents and shredded wrapping paper could be made from corn-based polymers which are stain resistant and incredibly durable.

You Nebraskans want to know the best part?! Most of these PLA products have their roots right here in the state with Nebraska corn. NatureWorks, located in Blair, and owned by Cargill Dow, has created an environmentally friendly material that reaches the consumer in food packaging, cold drinking cups, duvets, pillows, blankets and even clothing. These products are environmentally friendly and are 100% renewable. The Blair plant uses more than 40,000 bushels of corn every day in the production of PLA (see here).

The Nebraska Corn Board produced a brochure a couple of years ago that highlights all of these and the many other uses of corn. To have a look, click here to download the .pdf file. Or click here to read about more PLA uses in Nebraska.

This holiday season check your labels and purchase products containing corn. This is the environmentally friendly choice, as well as helping out the Nebraska economy.

Have a very, Merry Christmas from the Nebraska Corn Board and staff!

Your corn is calling

Okay - there really are technologies today that allow cornfields to make a call, or at least alert farmers to assorted conditions of the field, but this is different.

It's a mobile phone made, in part, from corn.

The Samsung Reclaim is a 'green' phone for Sprint that is made from bioplastics - with 40 percent of the phone's outer casing coming from corn-based bioplastic.

Since bioplastic -- PLA -- is made in Blair, Nebraska, the chances are pretty good that those phones have Nebraska corn in them.

For more details, see this good post at the Corn Commentary.

Also see this post and this post on corn-based plastics.

Cups of corn in Indiana's Government Center

As of mid-December, Indiana public employees and visitors to the Government Center's cafeterias were eating and drinking out of corn-based plastic containers.

The company behind the products is Cereplast. It has a process to combine various plant starches (corn, wheat, potato and more) to make hybrid plastics that replace their petroleum-based counterparts. In Indiana, the biodegradable and compostable cold-drink cups and containers are being used in both the cafeterias of the Government Center.

(Some of the company's products include PLA, which is produced by Natureworks in Blair...so there's a chance some Nebraska corn has found its way to Indiana government cafeterias.)

According to the company, Indiana's "Greening the Government" program and the Indiana Corn Marketing Council worked together to get the initiative up and running.

"As more and more consumers and businesses look for economical ways to make positive environmental choices, demand for corn-based plastics like those from Cereplast will continue to increase," said David Gottbrath, chair of the Indiana Corn Marketing Council's New Uses Committee and a farmer from Pekin, Indiana. The Indiana Corn Marketing Council will be promoting the use of the new bioplastics (photo).

Greenware is another brand of cups (and more!) that also seems to be showing up in more places, including a coffee shop in Lincoln.

Film crew coming to Seward

America's Heartland, a television program that focuses on America’s farmers and ranchers and how they bring food, fuel and fiber to the world, will be in Seward later this week. The Nebraska Corn Board said in a news release today that the film crew will complete interviews and record footage for an episode of America’s Heartland that will air this winter.

The crew will spend time on the Alan and Lori Tiemann farm near Seward and also at Lori’s off-farm job at a local bank. Alan is a member of the Nebraska Corn Board.

Earlier this summer, the Tiemann’s took a trip to Taiwan and China to film other segments that will be part of the episode, which Alan said focuses on foreign markets for corn, distillers grains and PLA, the corn-based material made in Blair that is used in everything from plastic ware to clothing. “Since all of these items come from Nebraska, the show’s producers decided to work with a farm family here," Alan said.

The photo above was taken "on location" at a research dairy farm in China.

Corn cups for iced coffee

At a neighborhood coffee shop in Lincoln yesterday, I was surprised not by the iced coffee but what it was served in -- a corn-based plastic cup. According to the baristas, the straw was made of corn, too. They were very enthusiastic about the cups. The shop -- The Cup (25th and Randolph) is in an old Pepsi bottling building and has a good atmosphere if you happen to be in the neighborhood.

Plastic cups at The Cup are made from PLA -- which is made from corn at a plant in Blair, Nebraska. The Natureworks plant churns out tons of the little corn-plastic BBs every day and ships them all over the world. They're turned into cups, deli containers, gift cards, fiber for clothes and decorative items, plastic wrap and a lot more.

Another company making unique things from corn is DuPont, which now makes its Sorona polymer from corn instead of petroleum. Although DuPont's polymer can be used for plastics, a great deal of focus is on carpet and fabrics. There's also the ADM-Metabolix joint effort, which is building a plant in Iowa to convert corn to plastic resin known as Mirel.

All of these efforts -- and more -- allow every day plastic items and fabrics that were traditionally made from petroleum to instead be made from a renewable resource. In this case, America's top crop: corn.

Other items made that use corn? Crayons, toothpaste, paint, aspirin, batteries, adhesives, paper, lubricants and hundreds of other items. The Nebraska Corn Board produced a brochure a year ago that highlights all of these and the many other uses of corn. To have a look, click here to download the .pdf file.