Issues History - Customer &
Business Development

Customer and business development represents NCGA's combined research and market development efforts. Since corn growers have always known that increased consumption drives market prices, NCGA and state corn checkoff boards have actively supported vital research for new products and business development.

Those efforts have paid off, too. Non-feed corn use has grown from 522 million bushels in 1975 to billions in 1998. While corn is traditionally viewed as a source of animal feed and human nutrition, corn has also been used in wallboard, detergents, paper manufacturing, plastics, adhesives, enzymes and pharmaceuticals. Recently, NCGA worked with the Iowa Corn Growers Association on Project Corn; a project that targeted for research investment significant markets that would use an additional 100 million bushels of corn. In 1994, NCGA also Began to utilize the stage gate process for evaluating research and commercialization projects, and in 1998 saw huge returns on their investment in the National Plant Genomics Initiative.

ETHANOL

Ethanol has become one of the most prominent uses of corn in the last 20 years, proving NCGA’s political muscle, major market development abilities and promotion successes. The ethanol market grew from 30 million bushels in 1977 to 500 million in 1997, adding up to 43 cents per bushel to the price of corn. The more than 40 U.S. ethanol plants create job opportunities in rural communities and have increased and helped to provide a market for corn valued at $4.5 billion in farm income annually.

NCGA's first official work with "grain alcohol" was in 1972, when the Iowa legislature appropriated $50,000 for a feasibility study. NCGA supported further feasibility research in the late 1970s and sponsored a gasohol study tour to Brazil in 1979.

State associations worked individually on ethanol issues in the 1980s. Colorado's Oxy Fuels program went into effect in 1988, and was the first with an environmental focus. Strong performance moved ethanol from a 4 percent market share the first year in Colorado to a 95 percent market share today.

Ethanol issues expanded into other areas in the late 1980s, and states utilized the political clout of NCGA to secure favorable national legislation. To leverage corn grower impact, NCGA and states twice initiated seed tag mailings to Washington D.C. in the ‘90s, in support of ethanol tax incentives. NCGA also supported grower fly-ins to Washington and effectively fought big oil's deep pockets and negative advertising.

NCGA has posted many ethanol victories with such efforts, including a ruling in 1985 to close a loophole and force imported ethanol to pay a 60 cent per gallon duty. But the biggest ethanol victories in Washington occurred in 1990, when NCGA secured an extension of ethanol's federal tax credit until 2000, and again in 1998, when an extension was secured through 2007.

NCGA has also worked on clean air legislation, supporting studies which show how ethanol can work in alternative fuels programs, as well as on energy policy that requires federal fleets to replace old vehicles with ones that burn alternative fuels. NCGA continues work to expand the use of E10 and E85 blends and support development of ethanol plants.

FOOD USES

Corn is found in hundreds of human food products, but sweeteners are the segment that have been the quiet giant of corn demand for years. In fact the market nearly doubled from 400 million bushels in 1982 to 790 million in 1997. Sweeteners first captured NCGA's attention in 1978, when Archer Daniels Midland introduced a sweetener made from corn. The next year, NCGA began to explore the feasibility of coordinating research about fructose's possible advantages for diabetes and decreasing tooth decay.

The sweetener market was threatened in the mid-1980s by the possible loss of the U.S. Sugar Program, but the sugar industry was victorious in helping preserve the program. Keeping imported sugar levels reasonable meant keeping more corn in sweeteners. By 1988-89, corn sweeteners accounted for 50 percent of the U.S. caloric sweetener market and continues today to be a primary use of corn.

CORN UTILIZATION CONFERNCE

The Corn Utilization Conference (CUC) was originated in 1987 and quickly became a launch pad for new corn uses. CUC I, which was co-sponsored by Funk Seeds International, was attended by 240 science and research experts. For a national commodity association to pull together researchers to talk about utilization in such a public forum was a totally new concept. But what emerged was the belief that, "anything made from a barrel of oil can be made from a bushel of corn." In 1998, the fifth such conference was renamed the Corn Utilization and Technology Conference (CUTC) and co-sponsored by NCGA and Corn Refiners Association. Over 700 people attended CUTC is held every other year.

U.S. GRAINS COUNCIL

Exports account for about 20 percent of total corn use, in large part because NCGA and USGC have maintained a close working relationship. NCGA was instrumental in forming in 1959 what is now the U.S. Grains Council (USGC) as an avenue for developing overseas markets. Walter Goeppinger invested his own time and money to get USGC off the ground.

Today, foreign market development work of the council is supported partly by state corn checkoff boards to fund such activities as feeding trials and educational seminars. NCGA and USGC have achieved victories working on such issues as the European corn gluten feed market, NAFTA and GATT.

TOMORROW’S TECHNOLOGY

NCGA has backed several exciting new projects during the 1990s, including leading private and public organizations in 1998 to passage of legislation that appropriated $40 million for the National Science Foundation (NSF) to create the National Plant Genomics Initiative. The research will enable scientists to improve such traits as nutritional value, stress tolerance and pest resistance so that someday corn with specific traits can be produced. The NSF awarded $52 million of the $85 million total dollars available to corn-related projects. NCGA would ultimately like to see $100 million awarded each year for plant genome funding and another $100 million for animal genomics. The research will ultimately lead to a corn genome map that will provide specific and complete information about corn's genetic structure. Once the function of all corn genes is known, corn breeders will be able to develop varieties that enable farmers to raise specific products desired by global customers.

One specific value-added market already being realized by corn growers is the high-oil corn market. In 1997, NCGA initiated a study of high-oil corn to evaluate the feed market for poultry and swine and the results of the study are promising.

NCGA is also working with the U.S. Department of Energy to champion the Plant/Crop-Based Renewable Resources 2020 Vision; a multi-industry plan for creating plant-based renewable products to replace petroleum-based products. Two million dollars in funding has been authorized, and NCGA has set as a goal $50 million per year in funding. The partnership will ultimately increase dependence on renewable crops by providing a technology roadmap to guide future research and development direction.

Last reviewed May 6, 2003