The Perfect Storm is here.   Climate Change, Energy Policy, National and Economic Security are now inextricably linked.  We are witnessing disruptive climate change caused by human activity.  Our addiction to foreign oil and need to reduce CO2 emissions have focused attention on alternative energy. The escalating use and production of Ethanol exemplifies a transition from reliance on hydrocarbons to carbohydrates for energy and chemical feedstocks.

What's old is new again.  Just as Ethanol has been around a long time, biopolymers were used extensively before once cheap petro-chemicals made them un-competitive. NatureWork® LLC has developed Ingeo™ fiber from polylactic acid made from corn starch. Ingeo™ is similar to a petrochemical based polyester in performance characteristics.

Chuck Roast is now producing apparel made from Malden Mills' Polartec® fleece made from Ingeo™ fibers. Unlike petrochemical based polyester, Ingeo™ PLA fibers are made from sustainable, annually renewable corn.

Most synthetic fleece fabric and clothing is manufactured in extremely low-wage Asian countries and imported to the U.S. on container ships that burn bunker oil. Natureworks® PLA comes from corn grown in the American Midwest.

This is an All-American product, from the American farmers, to NatureWorks® Ingeo™ PLA fiber, to Massachusetts-based Malden Mills Polartec® to New Hampshire's Chuck Roast Outerwear.

2. A hydrocarbon is any chemical compound that consists only of the elements carbon (C) and hydrogen (H). They all contain a carbon backbone, called a carbon skeleton, and have hydrogen atoms attached to that backbone. (Often the term is used as a shortened form of the term aliphatic hydrocarbon.)
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