in Opinion, Sustainable Business, Uncategorized

I Wish They Could Figure Out a Way to Make Biofuels From Candy Corn. I Hate Candy Corn.

by John-Paul Maxfield October 15, 2008, 1:30 PM 12 Comments

In response to my previous post, Growing Food to Feed Cars Will Continue to Drive Up the Price of Food, one reader responded, “I wish they could figure out a way to make fuel out of Candy Corn. I hate Candy Corn.” Well said reader, that is one hell of an idea.

Fueled by my own dislike for this impostor candy, my love of the environment, and an earnest desire to make sure that no child ever has to experience the pain of receiving this “candy” during the Halloween season, I did a little research on the market potential for cars fueled by Candy Corn, a “Feasibility Study”, if you will. At first glance, it seems like a win-win; energy independence, no more disappointed Trick-or-Treaters, and a captive market for Candy Corn producers around the world.

First step in the process, trying to gain an understanding of the existing Candy Corn market. In my extensive research, I discovered that more than 35 million pounds of candy corn will be produced this year. That equates to nearly 9 billion pieces, enough to circle the moon nearly four times if laid end-to-end. 75% of the candy corn produced will be consumed, or at the very least handed out to unhappy children by elderly homeowners, during Halloween. Interesting. It appears as if there is no shortage of supply, seems promising so far.

Now, a brief look at the automotive market. This data was slightly harder to quantify. As of 1997, there were 600,000,000 cars on the road. 1997 was a good year by all accounts, so I am comfortable with this data. Now that we have all of the data we need on the cars, let’s drive this baby home.

With 600,000,000 cars on the road and 9,000,0000,000 pieces of candy corn, that means that each car must be fueled by 15 pieces of candy corn. “Impossible”, you say? I don’t think so. We put a man on the moon and I will be damned if we can’t figure out a way to get 10,000 miles per candy corn.

Get to it engineers and entrepreneurs, make us proud. Do it for the planet, do it for your country, and most importantly, do it to save all those kids from the pain we felt each Halloween as we eagerly approached the door, only to be welcomed with a candy that tastes like plastic/vomit.

I know it’s early, but Happy Halloween!

Photo Credit: By e is for ericka via Flickr’s Media Commons

Written by John-Paul Maxfield

John-Paul Maxfield is the founder of Waste Farmers. Waste Farmers is a next generation sustainable agricultural company focused on helping humanity meet current and future food demands, while decreasing agriculture’s environmental footprint. The Company started in 2009 with $9,000 and a belief that idealism and capitalism can coexist. Today Waste Farmers has evolved into an innovator respected by leaders in the global community for developing simple solutions to the complex problems of modern agriculture and food security. Prior to starting Waste Farmers, John-Paul founded the "The Inspired Economist", a blog focused on covering the people, places, ideas, and technologies inspiring positive change and redefining capitalism.
In addition, John-Paul served as an Associate a private equity group specializing in small to mid cap service companies. In this capacity he focused on planning, forecasting, budgeting, and performance evaluation of MBH and its designated subsidiaries. Prior to joining MBH, John-Paul was an Analyst with Alvarez and Marsal where he spent the majority of his time on a team that aided Louisiana’s Recovery School District with the restoration of public schools post Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

John-Paul is active in the Colorado community, serving on the Board of the Rocky Mountain MS Center. In 2007 he was selected as one of the “Fifty for the Future” by the Colorado Statesman and is a graduate of the inaugural class of Impact Denver. John-Paul holds a BA from the University of Colorado.