From a tiny Iowa town hails Helen Inman, a farmer and businesswoman, who looks at corn and sees fine fabrics, fluffier pillows, bedding and a whole lot more.

From the farm and seed business she runs with her husband in Bancroft, Iowa, Helen Inman tells her story. “I grew up on a farm,” she begins. “I married a farmer. I’ve been farming my entire life.” Inman and her husband operate a 580-acre farm with 400 acres of cropland split between corn and soybeans. From this traditional base, she played a key role in developing new fabrics from corn that are capturing the attention of fashion designers and quality retailers worldwide.

As a former member of the NCGA Research and Business Development Action Team and current member of the Iowa Corn Promotion Board, Inman served on a committee that funded early research on polylactic acid (PLA), a polymer used in the production of everything from shampoo bottles to carpet tiles. Most commonly derived from petroleum, PLA can also be produced from cornstarch. Corn-based PLA has the advantage of being biodegradable and offers fabric makers a material with more natural characteristics than petroleum-based products.

“It’s a nice fabric,” Inman says. “It has a smooth, satiny feel and appearance when combined with cotton, wool or silk; plus it washes well.”

Seeing long-term potential for corn-based PLAs, the NCGA took an early leadership role. By combining state funds, committing support staff and coordinating research and promotion efforts, the NCGA was able to work with Inman and others to help build an industry that today supplies corn-based PLA to create products ranging from athletic socks to bedding.

In fact, corn-based polymers are finding enough practical applications to drive a Cargill-Dow plant in Blair, Neb., that uses 14 million bushels of corn to produce 140,000 tons of PLA each year. The plant is supplying 86 different companies including bedding manufacturers who are utilizing corn-based PLA to offer their customers fluffier pillows and cozier comforters. Consumers can sleep better knowing they are buying an environmentally friendly and renewable product.

When looking at the total market potential for all uses of corn-based plastics like PLA including biodegradable packaging, Inman takes a realistic, but hopeful, view. “The total market for plastics and polymers would take billions of bushels of corn to supply,” she says. “It’s not realistic to think that’s all going to come from corn, but if we could use 500 million bushels, it would surely bolster the price of corn.”

Those are results that most any corn grower would be very happy with.