At the same time, there appear to be market reasons for a move to corn-based chemicals, especially as a hedge against uncertainties in the oil market. Cargill, the closely held Minneapolis food ingredients giant, has visions of making billions of pounds of so-called renewable chemicals annually from corn and soybeans. Now the giant facility -- whose overhead pipes snake between 50-foot-tall tanks and metal buildings over a square mile -- is also cranking out what could be the next big...

For early settlers like Abraham Carlock, who were accustomed to the heavy timber of the upland south or the eastern woodlands, the prairie presented a bewildering spectacle. Today, the Grand Prairie is a monoculture landscape of genetically modified corn and soybean fields, subdivisions, office parks, interstate highways and all the creations of our restless age. Central Illinois offered these newcomers mile upon mile of perennial flowers and grasses reaching, at times, the height of a man...

But once the soil dries enough to get crops into the fields, higher prices for just about everything from corn to milk are expected to make 2007 a good year for the state's agriculture producers, offsetting higher production costs. Winter wheat and alfalfa were set back due to a warm spell followed by below normal temperatures in March, but Fischer expects those crops to rebound. Fischer said it would take several days of continuous dry weather - warm temperatures and lots of sun over the...

Tuesday, May 01, 2007 BY MICHAEL ANDERSEN Columbian staff writer Molded plastic seats, big yellow handholds, half the morning's newspaper scattered on the floor and a humming diesel engine - the machinery's all the same when Brenden Naccarato of Vancouver swings off the bus he rides to Portland each day. Tuesday, May 01, 2007 BY MICHAEL ANDERSEN Columbian staff writer Molded plastic seats, big yellow handholds, half the morning's newspaper scattered on the floor and a humming diesel engine...

First came cellulose sponges that incorporate chemicals to retard the growth of bacteria, then plastic cutting boards, brushes, and other housewares impregnated with pesticides. In many cases, bacteriocins attack potentially fatal food-poisoning germs, such as Listeria monocytogenes or the Clostridium responsible for botulism. Over the past few decades, Muriana and his colleagues around the world have identified upward of 80 bacteriocins, most of them produced by fermentation microbes....