.bodytext {float: left; } .floatimg-left-hort { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right: 10px; width:300px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-caption-hort { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:300px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-vert { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right:15px; width:200px;} .floatimg-left-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; font-size: 10px; width:200px;} .floatimg-right-hort { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px;} .floatimg-right-caption-hort { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimg-right-vert { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px;} .floatimg-right-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; border-top-style: double; border-top-color: black; border-bottom-style: double; border-bottom-color: black;} .floatimgright-sidebar p { line-height: 115%; text-indent: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar h4 { font-variant:small-caps; } .pullquote { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 150px; background: url(http://www.dmbusinessdaily.com/DAILY/editorial/extras/closequote.gif) no-repeat bottom right !important ; line-height: 150%; font-size: 125%; border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} When Sen. Hillary Clinton visited Pioneer Hi-Bred International’s headquarters in Johnston earlier this month, it fit perfectly with the biotech giant’s still developing plan to capitalize on Iowa’s status as the leadoff caucus state.

The request from Clinton, a Democrat representing New York and the former first lady, to visit Pioneer and talk with its scientists confirmed what company officials had suspected – its greenhouses and research fields would be just the backdrop candidates stumping in Iowa prior to the Jan. 14, 2008, caucuses want to illustrate their support for alternative fuels. Pioneer and its parent company, E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co., are big players in the burgeoning biofuels industry.

Pioneer hosted former Vice President Al Gore in the mid-1990s, but for the most part has escaped the notice of presidential candidates. Agriculture wasn’t a big issue in the 2004 presidential race or previous campaigns, but rising fuel and energy costs, and Iowa’s role as the nation’s leader in corn-based ethanol production, have made it a much talked about industry in the 2008 campaign. Though the environmental benefits of ethanol have been touted for about 20 years, it’s only been in the last 18 to 20 months that the alternative fuel has been widely endorsed.

“(Hosting a presidential candidate) makes having the governor or a state senator come out to visit a walk in the park.
– Sarah Fielder Thorn government affairs manage, DuPont

President George W. Bush’s January visit to the DuPont Experimental Station in Wilmington, Del., the day after he laid out a new energy proposal reducing dependence on foreign oil “really helped put Pioneer on the radar screen” for presidential candidates, said Sarah Fielder Thorn, DuPont’s government affairs manager for agriculture and nutrition.

In his Jan. 23 State of the Union address, Bush called for mandatory fuel standards requiring that 35 billion gallons of renewable and alternative fuels be used by 2017, nearly five times the 2012 target. DuPont has developed a three-part strategy to deliver new technologies to the biofuels industry while at the same time continuing to meet the growing demand for grain corn, soybeans and other traditional crops. Those technologies are designed to improve ethanol production through differentiated seed products and crop production chemicals; development of new technologies to allow the conversion of cellulose to biofuels; and development of next-generation biofuels with improved performance.

Pictured with Senator Clinton is William S. Niebur, DuPont Vice President of Crop Genetics Research and Development. He was discussing how Pioneer has been able to accelerate its research and development process to bring improved products to the market faster.

Sen. Hillary Clinton and Laura Higgins, Pioneer research scientist, explaining the benefits of our hybrids with Herculex Insect Protection.

Employees at Pioneer Hi-Bred International listen as Sen. Hillary Clinton speaks on March 5.

Pioneer, with its higher-yielding seeds bred specifically for ethanol production, is a big part of DuPont’s strategy, Thorn said. By hosting presidential hopefuls, the company is able to “showcase what our employees are doing and the science we are doing right here in Iowa.” The company’s advantage is not just with the candidate who eventually will occupy the Oval Office, she said, because like Clinton, many of the presidential hopefuls already hold elected office. Establishing or strengthening relationships with them is important from a regulatory sense, she said.

Clinton’s visit “opens the door for our Iowa and [Washington] D.C. offices to follow through if she is elected president,” Thorn said. “If she continues to be Sen. Clinton, it opens those doors and builds on the relationship we already have with her.”

More candidate visits are in the offing. Invitations have been extended and the company has received some nibbles, said Patrick Arthur, Pioneer’s public affairs manager.

Pioneer officials learned March 3 that Clinton wanted to visit the company’s greenhouses in two days, which made for a frantic 48 hours at the Johnston campus. The company already has a rigid security protocol to protect its research, but had to take extra precautions because Clinton is a former first lady who travels with a Secret Service detail and whose high profile makes her a greater target of protesters than lesser-known candidates.

“Our team of people came together very well with her team,” Arthur said. The only glitch, he said, was that some members of her campaign staff objected to the requirement that she wear safety goggles, a requirement for all staff and visitors in the greenhouse research area, and worried how the candidate might be portrayed if the image were beamed around the world.

“It makes having the governor or a state senator come out to visit a walk in the park,” Thorn said.