Renewable Resources Vision 2020, the National Corn Growers Association's (NCGA) checkoff-funded research that has the potential of increasing the price per bushel of corn by a
minimum of 50 cents per year, got yet another shot in the arm this week with the U.S. Department of Energy's announcement that it is awarding $8 million to stimulate the emerging biobased products industry.

Corn growers are designated to receive $1.45 million of that $8 million grant -- $850,000 to the
NCGA and $600,000 to the Iowa Corn Promotion Board. The NCGA's project focuses on the
production of 1,3 Propanediol, a chemical used for polymers. NCGA is working with Pacific
Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash., on this project.

Since 1997, the NCGA, in cooperation with the DOE, has championed the Renewables Resources 2020, a broad-based coalition of agricultural, forestry and chemical industry experts working to create plant-based, renewable products that would supplement petroleum-based products as fossil-fuel supplies dwindle.

"This latest DOE grant will further our ability to advance that research,'' said Floyd Schultz of
Plainfield, Ill., chairman of the NCGA Customer & Business Development Action Team. "It opens
the doors to an entirely new industry. The pieces to this complex puzzle are coming together, and NCGA can proudly state it has taken the lead in these advancements.''

Schultz also noted that, for the first time, the latest round of DOE includes academic research and teaching grants for Michigan State University, Iowa State University, University of Georgia,
Colorado School of Mines, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Oklahoma State University.

"The Renewable Resources Technology Roadmap identified a need to train scientists to work in
this new bioproducts industry,'' Schultz said. "DOE uses the Roadmap, developed by the industry, to guide its funding decisions.''

"The program is focused solely on funding projects that will use plants instead of petroleum for
chemical building blocks. It has the potential in the future to be an extremely significant market for corn,'' Schultz concluded. 

NCGA news release
N2949