Corn Growers Plow toward 2020, 2050

July 6, 2001

The National Corn Growers Association (NCGA), in cooperation with the Department of Energy (DOE), continues to focus on the plant/crop-based Renewable Resources Vision 2020. Ag Vision 2020, funded in part by farmers who contribute to 20 nation-wide checkoff funds, is a partnership of agricultural, forestry and chemical industry experts working to create plant-based, renewable products that would replace petroleum-based consumer products as fossil-fuel supplies dwindle.

The United States currently imports more than half its petroleum and that number is expected to increase to more than 65% by 2020. The vision, said NCGA Corn Action Team Chairman Vic Miller, a farmer from Oelwein, IA, targets a five-fold increase in today's tiny market shares of these basic renewable chemical components by the year 2020. "If corn were the feedstock for 10% of this market today," said Miller, "it would increase farm income by more than five billion dollars per year. That is the equivalent to a 50-cent increase in the price of corn."

Miller said the ultimate goal for Ag Vision 2020 is to increase the market share of renewable chemical building blocks to 10% by 2020, up from the current 2%, and up to 50% by the year 2050. The DOE AgVision is the only program concentrating on increasing the use of renewable resources for chemicals to be used for bioproducts. To date, $15 million has been set aside to address priorities outlined in the four roadmap categories.