Farm Progress America, October 27, 2023

Mike Pearson says farmers and the ag industry is always looking for new markets and new uses for the food, feed, fiber and fuel grown on farms across the country.

This has prompted the National Corn Growers Association to have the Consider Corn Challenge which is a competition designed to find new uses for field corn and grow new ideas.

There were four winners this year:

Blue Stem Biosciences, from Omaha, Nebraska, has created a chemical called 3HP. It can be used for paints, personal care products and coatings. It is created in a process similar to ethanol and the plan is to retrofit closed ethanol plants in order to ramp up production. There is an estimated $25 Billion market for the chemical.

Penn State University has created a product from corn starch and corn oil which will store energy in lithium batteries. This is a very popular idea in the era of electric vehicles.

Nexarus which is using corn to replace petroleum. The idea is to processing dextrose which is a sugar found in the kernel of the corn to make industrial chemicals rather than relying on oil and gas. The estimate is to reduce CO2 emissions by 85 percent.

Maizely also won this year's competition. It is the first corn based milk alternative, Maizely Original. The goal is to use the product as a milk replacer in baking.

The competition is a way for the ag industry and others to work together and develop new products in an attempt to show adaptability in corn.

Each winner gets $62,500 for winning the competition.

Farm Progress America is a daily look at key issues in agriculture. It is produced and presented by Mike Pearson, farm broadcaster and host of This Week in Agribusiness .