Corn is the nation's largest agricultural crop in bushels, where 9.97 billion bushels of corn were harvested in 2000. Kansas produced 416 million bushels of corn in 2000 and ranks eighth in U.S. corn production. Although about 60 percent of the U.S. corn crop is fed to U.S. livestock, markets created by export demand and new uses are vital to the corn industry. New use research, funded by corn checkoff dollars through the Kansas Corn Commission has created new markets for corn. Over 3,500 products at the local supermarket contain corn or corn by-products.
Corn is used to make ethanol, a clean burning automobile fuel.
Corn is also used to make biodegradable plastics. Every American consumes three pounds of corn every day through thousands of food uses and non-food uses.