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Iowa Corn among six Consider Corn Challenge winners

An Iowa Corn Promotion Board research project has been recognized by the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA).

Southwest Iowa farmer and Promotion Board president Duane Aistrope says Iowa Corn was one of six winners selected in the inaugural NCGA Consider Corn Challenge.

“It was a contest open to anybody, and we have been working for the last few years on what’s called an MEG product.  You take corn to make plastic bottles.”

He tells Brownfield the technology has tremendous potential.

“It could be close to the next ethanol market once it gets established.”

However, Aistrope says it might take a few years to determine how successful MEG (say each letter) can become.

“We’re going to take a lot of bushels of corn to make into plastic.  Your pop bottles, water bottles, all those kinds of things.  That’s a huge market throughout the world, (and) those things are made out of oil now.  So we’re going to make a more green product in the end, which will be helpful to our environment.”

The six winners were previewed last month at Commodity Classic in Anaheim.

NCGA awarded each $25,000-dollars and will explore additional opportunities to support these projects.