Corn: Food, Fuel, And The Future

Although the first image that comes to mind when thinking of corn is a freshly buttered ear, most corn doesn’t make it to the dinner table. Whole-kernel sweet corn is only about one-percent of the crop. The rest of it is field corn. Some is processed for food ingredients, but it’s primarily used as livestock feed and ethanol.As demand for renewable fuel has grown in recent years, South Dakota has emerged as the fifth largest ethanol producing state with over a dozen biofuel plants. Dean Frederickson, general manager of the POET biorefining plant in Chancellor, S.D., and Lewis Bainbridge, who farms with his sons near Ethan, S.D. joined Dakota Midday and discussed the impact of the ethanol industry on the corn market and the future of corn as a source for biofuel and other products.