Posted on 30-4-2002

Fabric from Corn: Greenfleece, or Greenwash?
By Tom Price* Special to Corpwatch, April 22, 2002

The dramatic ads feature thought provoking tag lines such as "the seeds of
a revolution are sometimes just that," and "unlike every other
revolutionary product, this one won't change the world." Blanketing the
outdoor equipment trade press over the last several months, the ads hype
the biggest environmental breakthrough in fabrics since the creation of
fleece from recycled plastic soda bottles.

The marketing blitz by Cargill Dow heralded the unveiling of a line of
fabrics called "NatureWorks PLA" (polylactic acid), made entirely from
corn. At first blush it seems like the sort of environmental wonder
technology always promised. Rather than spinning the fuzzy fabric from oil,
NatureWorks uses the natural sugars in corn, an annually renewable crop.
Cargill Dow boasts its invention is a virtually limitless, 'clean' product,
free of the taint of the pollution and controversy of the oil industry.
Even more miraculous, the technology isn't limited to apparel. Cargill Dow
has plans to further "green" the marketplace with a bewildering array of
corn-based products including carpeting, wall panels, upholstery, interior
furnishings, outdoor fabrics, as well as plastics like film around CDs and
golf ball sleeves. These products are even environmentally friendly when
finished -- PLA can be completely recycled in commercial compost
facilities. All this from an engineering process that cuts fossil fuel use
in half compared to traditional oil-based technologies. What could
environmentalists possibly find wrong with these wonder products?

Behind the Hype

Missing from all the hype is the fact that the source material for these
products is genetically engineered corn, designed by one of Cargill Dow's
corporate parents, Cargill Inc., a world leader in genetic engineering. The
obvious implication: by creating massive non-food markers for genetically
engineered (GE) products, Cargill and other biotech companies expect to do
an end run around the global campaign to stop GE proliferation. They hope
that by creating so many products with such an irresistible green appeal,
any voices of concern will be drowned out by the sheer weight of the
marketplace.

Of course, this isn't the story Cargill Dow wants you to hear. They'd
rather you logged on to their relentlessly self congratulatory web site,
which boasts that "Cargill Dow is launching an industrial revolution in
which petroleum based products are replaced with annually renewable ones in
other words, unlimited resources to replace limited ones." "Reducing our
environmental impact while at the same time producing a superior product is
why our company exists," gushes the company website. In fact, Cargill Dow
exists to create new markets for the products of its parent companies.
Cargill Dow is a stand-alone company created by two of the leaders
bioengineering, Cargill Inc. and Dow Chemical. Minnesota-based Cargill is
both the world's largest privately held company and the planet's largest
producer of corn. In fact, it already controls about 60% of the corn market
in India, despite higher prices for their GE corn seed. A study by the
Dutch banking conglomerate, Rabobank, estimates the global market for
hybridized and genetically engineered crops at $30 billion and anticipates
that it will to $90 billion. Cargill and Dow spun off the new company to
take advantage of strategic strengths each had, namely biotechnology and
advanced chemical processes, and the first outlet for their products was
the environmentally friendly, health-oriented outdoor clothing industry.

Some PR Gaffs

Unfortunately for Cargill Dow, they stumbled twice right out of the gate in
their promotion of PLA as a "green" alternative to oil-based products.
Their first SNAFU was trying to dupe the company they chose to market their
material. Given that the outdoor apparel industry is always on the lookout
for better/greener products, meant Cargill Dow could have their pick of
companies to team up with. They chose Patagonia, based in Ventura,
California. It seemed a natural fit: Patagonia is well known for a
commitment to environmental sustainability, and as developer of green
technologies. They jumped at the new technology and spent years working
with Cargill Dow on its development. But the relationship eventually
soured. As Jill Zillegen, Patagonia vice president for Environmental
Affairs put it, "At first, we could barely contain our excitement about the
promise of PLA, it seemed almost too good to be true. Unfortunately, it
was." Patagonia bailed out of the project when executives found out that
Cargill Dow couldn't -- or wouldn't -- guarantee a GE-free source of corn
for the new fabrics. Currently about 30% of domestic corn is genetically
engineered. But as Dan Dye, vice president of the North American Grain
Group for Cargill Inc., points out keeping them separate is "neither
practical nor economically viable" for the company. So, despite the obvious
production and marketing benefits of using PLA, Patagonia passed. "We have
invested a significant amount of time, research, and even hope in PLA,
explained Zillegen. After many difficult discussions she says the company
decided that "using inadequately tested, genetically engineered organisms
is not a solution to the environmental crisis." Unfortunately for Cargill
Dow, the clothing company didn't go quietly. At the outdoor retailer trade
show where PLA was unveiled, Patagonia devoted two full pages of their
catalogue and put up large billboards explaining why they weren't using the
product.

At the same show, Cargill Dow was forced into an embarrassing about face,
after they were caught implying an endorsement for their products from
eco-group Greenpeace. In the weeks leading up to the unveiling, Cargill Dow
PR executive Vicki Bausman brandished an article in a Greenpeace, UK
magazine by Cargill Dow VP for Technology Dr. Pat Gruber extolling the
virtue of PLA process, hinting that it was an implicit endorsement by the
environmental group. After repeated questioning by reporters she admitted
that Gruber never told Greenpeace, a long-time opponent of genetically
engineered crops, that Cargill Dow intended to use GE corn as their source
material. Not surprisingly, when Greenpeace activists caught wind of
Cargill Dow's plans, they were furious. "The proliferation of genetic
pollution through these GE crops has the potential to be the greatest
environmental disaster in history, and it is highly disingenuous to claim
this is green when it uses GE corn," said Craig Culp of Greenpeace USA.

A Green Company?

Meanwhile corporate parent Cargill is attempting an image makeover as an
eco-friendly business in the face of growing worldwide opposition to its
genetically engineered products. In February executives unveiled a new
corporate logo featuring a green leaf, and ads displaying a butterfly with
the tag line "there's a new Cargill taking shape, " a move sure to make GE
activists wince, since Monarch butterflies have been among the signature
species impacted by GE pollen. Their TV ads feature young children standing
outside in rain-drenched fields and in front of green-power windmills. Most
recently, Cargill quietly bankrolled a new "academic organization" in
Thailand aimed at extolling the virtues of GE crops, according to the
Bangkok Post. Activists, like Isabella Meister of Greenpeace, believe that
the biotech giant chose Thailand because it is "the only country in the
region that has formulated a clear policy about GMOs, such as a ban on the
import and commercial plantation of GM seeds." While the new institute's
director denies any ties to international biotechnology companies, her
group's website admits it is funded by those same companies.

Back in the US, Cargill Dow presses ahead with their plans to create not
just the raw material, but the finished product as well as a marketplace
for their GE corn. While the potential benefits of this technology to
reduce dependence on non-renewable sources is indeed enormous, it remains
to be seen whether Cargill Dow will follow through on their promises to
create non-GE sources for PLA such as straw. Until they do, critics of
bio-engineered crops see no difference between PLA and the GE corn
Kellogg's uses in its cereal. "Kellogg's has Franken-food, and Cargill Dow
is now making Franken-fleece," explained Craig Culp of Greenpeace. Still
unanswered is the question of whether enough concern will be raised about
PLA products, before they are so deeply entrenched in the marketplace that
removing them becomes impossible. Cargill Dow isn't waiting around to find
out. On April 2nd, they announced the opening of a new $750 million
factory, the largest producer of polylactic acid on the planet. Sprawling
over sixteen acres of former cornfields in Blair, Nebraska, the massive
facility can generate more than 300 million pounds of Natureworks PLA per
year, using some 40,000 bushels of Cargill corn every day in the process.

* After spending eight years working as a conservationist on Capitol Hill,
Tom Price returned to his home town of Salt Lake City. He now works as a
freelance journalist covering environment, culture and travel.