Word: ethanol
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...even her critics say that Nonaka may simply have been ahead of her time. Better-financed companies are attempting the same kind of corporate reinvention with more success. Archer Daniels Midland, the U.S. food-processing giant, has become a hot stock-market play as America's largest producer of ethanol, an alternative fuel. "The direction toward environmental issues is the right one," says Tatsuya Mizuno, an analyst with Fitch Ratings. But it's too soon for some CEOs to bet that going green will get them...
Biofuels are touted as a planet-friendly substitute for coal and oil. While ethanol (made from corn or sugarcane) and biodiesel (made from soybean or palm oil) burn cleaner and produce less greenhouse gas than fossil fuels do, critics warn that biofuels have their own dark side. Cuba's Fidel Castro even called powering cars with food "sinister" policy, but here's a more level-headed breakdown of the impact and limitations of farming for fuel...
Corn. One-fifth of the U.S. corn crop is now turned into ethanol at 114 biorefineries, located primarily in the Midwest. To meet Bush's 2017 target of producing 35 billion gallons of ethanol, the entire current U.S. crop would need to be turned into fuel. So long, cornflakes...
Sugarcane. Boosters see Brazil, which meets 40% of its transportation fuel needs through ethanol, as a model to emulate. But critics warn that sugarcane encroaches on wildlife habitat, degrades soils and causes pollution when fields are burned...
...Nonaka may simply have been ahead of her time. Other, better-financed companies are redefining their images by moving aggressively into environmentally friendly products. For example, Archer Daniels Midland, the U.S. food-processing giant, has become a hot stock-market play because it is America's largest producer of ethanol, an alternative fuel seen as a way to reduce U.S. dependence on oil imports. "The direction towards environmental issues is the right one," says Tatsuya Mizuno, an analyst with Fitch Ratings. But it's too soon for CEOs to bet their jobs on the expectation that going green will...