According to the Corn Marketing Program of Michigan (CMPM), CMPM andTravel Michigan have renewed their commitment to partner for a second year to furnish all Michigan Welcome Centers with corn-based plastic bags for visitors to fill up with helpful Michigan travel information.
There are 14 Michigan Welcome Centers around the state ranging as far south as New Buffalo, and as far north as Ironwood. Each of these welcome centers serve as a tourist information hub for the entire state. Last year alone, nearly eight million visitors stopped at the Michigan Welcome Centers. Due to the positive results and huge success of the project, the CMPM and Travel Michigan have both decided to continue this program for an additional year.
“More than 80 billion pounds of plastics are produced in the United States every year, and these plastics have traditionally relied on petroleum-based feedstocks,” said Clark Gerstacker, CMPM president and National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) Corn Board member. “Essentially, anything that is currently made from petroleum can, in the future, be made from corn,” said Gerstacker. “However, this transition will not happen overnight. It takes time to build infrastructure, develop markets and educate consumers.”
The CMPM has worked to educate consumers about the benefits and availability of corn-based products. To raise awareness, CMPM board members and staff have traveled across the state attending trade shows, green fairs and grower events. With
“We have the safeguards and controls in place to prevent fraudulent acts like this for producers,” says Clayton McMartin, President of 
The USDA is handing out another $13 million in loans and grants for 233 renewable energy projects in rural areas of 38 different states.
On a warm, clear summer evening in Central Missouri, the night air practically thunders to life as 3,000 horsepower of tractor-pulling power is started and modified machines of farm implement heritage rumble down a dirt track. While the behemoths of the National Tractor Pullers Association Midwest Extreme Truck and Tractor Pull are pushed to the limits of what an engine will do, they are doing it with a green blend of soybean-based B20 biodiesel.
This United Soybean Board (USB) and soybean checkoff sponsored event is a chance to highlight the great performance of the green fuel in these extreme conditions.
“While overall it may only be a couple of dozen jobs on a statewide basis, it is an important signal because we were in a period of real economic turmoil in the ethanol sector, but yet we didn’t see layoffs in those plants, even the ones that went through bankruptcies, and in a couple of cases we saw companies use this time to modify their plants to create addition production capabilities, such as corn oil extraction,” Sneller said. 
U.S. ethanol production is on the rise with the news that the industry has set new production records. According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), American ethanol facilities produced 694,000 barrels per day (b/d) in June 2009. That is up 109,000 b/d from a year ago.
Everywhere you go at the 2009 Farm Progress Show in Decatur, Illinois this week, people are talking about ethanol.
Saying it is on a path less taken, a Houston, Texas company is looking for alternatives to alternative energy.
A new, eight-million-gallon-a-year biodiesel plant in Washington state has come on line with the opening of the facility’s canola crusher, joining its biodiesel brewer that began refining last November.
Legislation that increases the amount of biodiesel state and local governments in Illinois must use has been signed into law by Gov. Pat Quinn.