Page Talk, Lancaster Farming, Saturday, March T 7, 1998
Renewables Industry Vision Predicts
New Uses For Corn, Soybeans
LONG BEACH, Calif.
The raw materials used to
manufacture bumpers on cars,
carpet fibers, and plastic pack
aging material will soon ori
ginate from com and soybeans
produced by America’s farm
ers.
The markets for these prod
ucts and others have led growth
industries such as chemical,
biotech, and wet-mill proces
sors to closely study tapping
the tremendous unused poten
tial of renewable com and soy
bean crops as future production
and energy resources. An in
dustry-led, long-range strategic
vision was announced by
members of a unique public/
private coalition to launch a
Research and Development
(R&D) partnership to begin
making this vision a reality.
“The federal government
supports this strategic vision
which unites industry to poten
tially invest millions of dollars
in research and development of
new products and processes
which use renewable plant and
crop-based resources,” said
Colorado com grower Tim
Hume, a member of the Na
tional Com Growers Associa
tion’s (NCGA) Com Board.
“The resulting research and develop
ment investments by government and pri
vate industry partners involved will
stimulate new initiatives and generate
more use and greater demand for renew
able crops like com and soybeans which
is welcome news for this country’s com
and soybean growers,” said Hume.
“The use of agricultural products a
renewable resource to make consumer
goods and to fuel major industrial activi
ties will cut costs, require less energy,
and reduce waste,” said Secretary of
Energy Federico Pena.
The NCGA initiated and led the efforts
involved to develop the Plant/Crop-
Based Renewable Resources 2020 Plan
with a broad-based coalition of U.S. agri
cultural, forestry, and chemical industry
members. Known as the “2020 plan,” it
serves as a strategic vision to developing
greater industry usage of renewable
plants and crops, trees, and agricultural
wastes for chemicals, materials, and other
products.
Major industry publications support
this view. In a recent edition of Chemical
and Engineering News, the editors of
fered their forecast of what will happen in
the chemical industry. They expect that
plants rather than fossil resources will be
come the primary feedstock for oils and
plastics.
This vision recognizes that sustaining
U.S. economic growth depends on having
a secure supply of raw materials and that
additional renewable resources for indus
trial production and energy needs must be
accelerated. It also takes into account the
growing trend toward partnerships be
tween government and private industry to
funding national R&D initiatives.
R&D results should in turn create new
business ventures, more jobs, and devel
op environmentally-friendly renewable
energy and chemical sources to fuel do
mestic core manufacturing capabilities.
“This is a significant effort toward de
veloping a unique and exciting relation
ship between federal agencies and the pri
vate sector,” noted Energy Secretary
Pena.
“This new agreement is
critically important to Ameri
can agriculture,” said Secretary
of Agriculture Dan Glickman.
“The U.S. Department of Agri
culture’s research program has
a proud history of developing
new technologies that have
added significant value to com
modities and created economic
returns benefiting all Ameri
cans.”
“We believe that developing
plant and crop-based renew
able resources provides a vi
able alternative to the current
dependence on non-renewable
diminishing fossil fuels. De
veloping these home-grown re
sources can contribute to our
economic growth and national
security,” said Doug Faulkner,
agriculture team leader in the
Department of Energy’s
(DOE) Office of Industrial
Technologies.
The strategy behind this
planning has three phases. The
first phase developed the 2020
Vision derived from industry
goals. The second phase will
draw a technology roadmap of
industry priorities and mile
stones, which leads to the final
phase of implementing re-
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search and development of
new technologies created by
industry partnerships. The plan
envisions developing crop
based renewables infrastruc
ture required to supplement in
dustrial use of petrochemicals.
Vision goals include attaining
fully integrated manufacturing
capacity to win 10 percent of
the basic chemical building
blocks from renewable bio
products by 2020, and a SO per
cent market share by 2050.
Contributors to crafting the
2020 plan include industrial
and commodity associations,
major corporations, state agen
cies, and environmental
groups. Industry members will
lead the process to prioritize
technology needs, develop
strategies, which utilize new
technologies, commit re
sources, direct R&D partner
ships, and then use the results.
The DOE’s Office of Industrial
Technology will facilitate the
partnership process by coor
dinating industry participation,
commit federal resources, pro
vide access to national labs,
and disseminate program re
sults.
“ This bold visionoary plan
reveals the potential of devel
I
oping plant and crop renew
ables as additional sources of
materials which can be used as
industrial building blocks. It
gives those involved direction
to develop specific technical
goals related to this plan. The
next step is to integrate public
and private industry’s renew
able crop and plant research ef
forts to meet our future needs,”
said NCGA’s Director of Re
search and Business Develop-
Here Are Facts
ST. LOUIS, Mo. Wallie
Hardie serves as chairman of
the board of the National Com
Growers Association (NCGA),
a producer-based commodity
organization with 30,000
members headquartered in St
Louis. Its mission is to enhance
com profitability and usage to
improve the quality of life in a
changing world.
Hardie farms 2,300 acres
nearFairmount, N.D. where he
grows com, soybeans, and sug
ar beets.
Hardie is a founding mem
ber of the North Dakota Com
Growers Association. Prior to
becoming NCGA chairman,
Hatdie served as NCGA presi
dent, vice president, chairman
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ment Dr. Todd Werpy.
The 2020 plan was unveiled
during the General Session at
this year’s Commodity Classic,
the combined convention and
trade show hosted by NCGA
and the American Soybean As
sociation (ASA). Nearly 4,000
growers, government, and in
dustry representatives attended
this year’s event. To obtain a
copy of the 2020 Vision, call
toll-free, (800) 363-3732.
About Hardie
of its Government Relations
Committee, and chairman of its
Research and Commercializa
tion Committee. Hardie also
served as co-chairman of
“Global Positioning Corn:
New Thinking for a New Age,”
the organization’s long-range
strategic planning process.
Haidie has bachelor’s and
master’s degrees in agricultural
economics from North Dakota
State University. Prior to farm
ing full time, Hardie worked as
a research specialist for the
University of Minnesota Agri
cultural Experiment Station in
St. Paul, Minn. He also worked
as a farm management special
ist for the Cooperative Exten
sion Service at North Dakota
State University.
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