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Setting the stage for profitability: Increasing corn demand

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By investing in the Minnesota corn check-off, our state’s corn farmers are setting the stage for profitability. While low commodity prices are a point of stress, allocating resources to improving the areas we can control is more important than ever. Over the coming weeks, we will be highlighting how your investment is doing just that. You can read the series to date here.

Today’s farmers are becoming more efficient to reduce costs on the farm, but low commodity prices still serve as a roadblock to improving profitability. To turn around years of depressed prices, Minnesota’s corn growers are investing in research that increases corn demand.

The Minnesota Corn Research & Promotion Council (MCR&PC) is directing funds from Minnesota’s corn check-off to research into the next market for corn that turns around the supply-and-demand issue. By working with researchers in Minnesota and beyond, corn is being incorporated into materials, food and more in ways that not only identifies a new use for corn, but also leads to a more sustainable product.

Researching new uses for corn has brought it to previously unthinkable markets. For example, trū Shrimp Systems in southwestern Minnesota is using innovative technology to produce high-protein marine shrimp in ideal conditions for food safety and environmental stewardship. The pioneering company is incorporating corn in the diet of the shrimp as a safe source of nutrition. The arrangement has proven successful for trū Shrimp Systems, as it continues works to meet the 1.6-billion pound demand for shrimp in the United States.

Also through the investment in the corn check-off, corn is replacing petroleum in everyday products to make them more environmentally friendly and sustainable. The University of Minnesota’s Center for Sustainable Polymers is using starches from sources like corn, instead of petroleum, to create the key molecule found in rubber. If products like car tires eventually are made using corn instead of fossil fuels, the economic benefit for farmers and the environmental impact is immense.

In addition to its work incorporating corn into rubber, the Center for Sustainable Polymers is also using the grain to strengthen plastics. Polylactide (PLA) plastics are made through a process of fermenting sugar derived from corn. The remarkably tough end-product has started to find potential commercial uses, including with coffee giant Starbucks, which has started researching cup liners made from the plant-based material.

Minnesota’s corn farmers are also fueling research that makes the most of the ethanol-making process. Researchers at South Dakota State University are using funds from the corn check-off to create food-grade dried distillers grains, which is a by-product of ethanol that is most commonly used as a high-protein livestock feed. Researchers are making progress to expand that market to baked foods like cookies, flatbreads, pizza and more by incorporating distillers’ grains into flour that would have higher protein and dietary fiber content.

As you can see, the investment by Minnesota’s corn farmers in finding new uses is bringing corn to a variety of markets with remarkable potential. By continuing to fuel these innovations through the check-off, a future where corn is demanded to make the nation’s tire supply, toughen plastics and fill grocery store shelves is attainable.

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