Des Moines, Iowa — Governor Reynolds says there’s a possibility India may be a market for Iowa-made ethanol.
Reynolds has recently returned from a trade mission to India, which is the world’s third-largest ethanol producer. However, the country has set the goal of having a 20 percent blend of ethanol in all gasoline sold in India — by next year — and eliminating all carbon emissions by 2070. Reynolds says not only does that mean Iowa-made ethanol may have a new market, but the ban on imports of Iowa corn — because it’s grown from genetically modified seeds — might be lifted if that corn is used to produce ethanol.
Reynolds says another idea would be finding plots of land in rural India to grow genetically-modified corn that would be used to make ethanol. She says that could lead to the acceptance of GMO corn in India for food production.
Reynolds stressed the work of Iowa native Norman Borlaug as she met with officials in India last month. Borlaug developed a strain of high-yielding wheat in Mexico, took it to India in the 1960s and was credited with saving hundreds of millions in Pakistan and India from starvation.
