Old efforts at new uses: A brief history of chemurgy and the American search for biobased materials

Abstract

The American search for biobased and renewable raw materials has a long history of intermittent success and frustration. This article traces the history of the chemurgy movement - a precursor to what are now sometimes called agricultural "new uses" initiatives - from its context of the 1920s through its emergence as a political force in the mid-1930s, when chemurgy offered a strategy for industries and governments interested in reviving the agricultural economy and reducing dependence upon foreign sources of industrial raw materials. Chemurgists put pressure upon the U.S. Department of Agriculture to devote greater attention to crop utilization research, efforts that were operational in time to make important contributions to the U.S. economy during World War II. This article devotes considerable attention to the postwar era, a period not discussed in most histories of chemurgy. The article concludes with a tentative assessment of issues that caused chemurgy to falter in the past as well as precautionary lessons for the contemporary study of biobased materials.