Since I had the good fortune to be hired by Cargill in 1991, I have enjoyed 20 years of experience in the growing field of biopolymers.  Starting with operating a pilot plant designed to produce crude lactide monomer, I have watched the evolution of a business, and helped with the creation of a new material and market.  Today NatureWorks LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cargill, is the world’s largest manufacturer of polylactides, sold under the trade name Ingeo.  A wide variety of applications for Ingeo have been developed and commercialized, including thermoforming, oriented films, foams, textiles, extrusion coatings, injection stretch blow molded bottles and wide variety of fibers.  As a product development chemist, my primary job responsibility is to develop new properties and processes that can enable business growth.