Since the origins of the Morrill Act, land grant scientists have engaged in multiple strategies to connect agriculture with the mechanical arts. Following a long history of agricultural chemistry in service to farmers, the �chemurgy� movement emerged in the 1930s as an explicit effort to have land grant chemists and chemical engineers work in the service of industry. �Chemurgists� sought and promoted the industrial of use of agricultural raw materials on the macro-level, such as motor fuel from corn and Jerusalem artichokes, starch from sweet potatoes, plastics from sawmill wastes, and much more. Although the chemurgy movement faded as the economic and wartime crises of the 1930s and 1940s passed, the search for industrial applications of biobased materials continued, focused in the postwar era on the micro-level search for valuable components within farm products. As the current passion for biotechnology suggests, efforts to build bridges between agriculture and science and industry have continued into the twenty-first century.

Chemurgy and biotechnology at the land grant colleges: Bridging agriculture, industry, and chemistry in the 1930s and beyond

244th National Meeting (2012)

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