Cargill's NatureWorks division deploys bacteria to turn corn into a biodegradable plastic for water bottles, clothing and food packaging.
And it takes even more energy to convert that corn into ethanol.
The U.S. pays a huge subsidy to transform corn into motor fuel.
The phone call came late one August afternoon as my older sister Gracie and I sat out on the back porch shucking the sweet corn into the big tin buckets.
Five years ago Pioneer Hi-Bred International (a subsidiary of DuPont) figured out how to slide a critical gene from corn into sorghum to make a variant with more lysine--an essential amino acid.
It might even turn corn ethanol critics into corn cob ethanol supporters.
Imagine if the U.S. Congress were to mandate subsidies for the dumping of 40% of the U.S. corn crop into the ocean every year.
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Adding the enzyme to corn stalks, the researchers say, could allow easier conversion of the woody waste parts of the corn plant into ethanol.
An excellent example is corn crafted by introducing into commercial corn varieties a gene (or genes) encoding a natural toxin(s) from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis.
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The U.S. now turns over 40% of corn production into biofuels.
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Its four fermentation towers, each nine stories high, use engineered bugs to turn corn glucose into a chemical building block used to make clothes and cosmetics.
Ethanol was making investors giddy last year when oil prices were high, corn prices were low and ethanol producers like Archer Daniels Midland and small U.S. farmer cooperatives were reaping huge profits distilling corn mash into fuel.
Ethanol was making investors giddy last year when oil prices were high, corn prices were low and ethanol producers like Archer Daniels Midland (nyse: ADM - news - people ) and small farmer cooperatives were reaping huge profits distilling corn mash into fuel.
One disaster deserves another: Bayer looks to buy the biotech corn that got into the food supply.
Another is to convert the waste material from corn ethanol plants into oil that can be used to make biodiesel.
Today already we see that corn prices have doubled and that a lot of the corn is going into the fuel side.
Corn and sugar, for example, are used extensively in biofuels - in the US, 40% of all corn production goes into making ethanol.
And the recent boom in commodity prices, driven by rapid growth in demand from China (along with the diversion of corn and sugar into to alcohol production), largely explains why total support fell from 37 percent of farm income in 1986 to 18 percent in 2010.
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But for the handful of companies that make corn syrup, and the significantly larger number of farmers who grow the corn that gets ground and processed into the stuff, the corn syrup hysteria is no laughing matter.
"I feel like I'm an entertainer every day, whether I'm trying to convince somebody that mine's the best sweet corn to buy in the valley, or that dropping a few dollars at the gate to go into the corn maze is a good idea, " said Keith Stocker.
Growing corn and turning it into a transportation fuel wreaks havoc on our aquifers, our soil and our bank accounts.
Another goal, kick-started by a grant from British Petroleum, is to create bacteria that can efficiently turn corn and other plants into bio-fuels.
Congressmen love ethanol subsidies, notwithstanding that growing corn and distilling it into ethanol uses 29%more energy than it produces, according to Cornell University's David Pimentel.
The Food and Drug Administration was concerned that the insect-killing protein that had been inserted into the corn might provoke an allergic reaction in people.
Economists don't expect many of the cotton farmers who had abandoned their traditional crop for others like corn to rush back into cotton and drive up the supply.
Another goal, kick-started by a grant from British Petroleum (nyse: BP - news - people ), is to create bacteria that can efficiently turn corn and other plants into bio-fuels.
It seems that the use of (heavily subsidized) corn as a cheap universal feed for chickens, for cows, and even for fish, not to mention the corn products that seep into candy, soft drinks, cheese, and almost everything else, has made that particular package of starch nearly inescapable.
America's ethanol subsidy, which has led to a huge rise in production, rocketing maize prices and consequent rioting in Mexico, is the sharpest example of why government should not pick winners: once the fertiliser and fuel used in corn production are taken into account, ethanol is probably not much greener than petrol.
The appealing idea is that native plants like switchgrass and agricultural leftovers like wheat straw and corn stover could be turned into ethanol.
The appealing idea is that plants native to the U.S., like switchgrass, and agricultural leftovers like wheat straw and corn stover could be turned into ethanol.
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