(ABC 6 News) – Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig toured North Iowa on Friday to learn about efforts being made in poultry processing, bioscience and renewable energy.

On his annual tour of each county in the state, Secretary Naig learned about the agriculture advancements being made in Northern Iowa.

The theme of the day: All roads lead to corn.

“There’s really no renewable energy diesel in the mid-west, there’s bio-diesel, but it’s a different process,” said Lee Kiewiet, President of Manly Terminal. “Things that get land-filled; wastes, fats, oils, greases and it’s probably going to be in the next jet engine to fly you to your next vacation.”

But it isn’t just renewable energy being redefined in Iowa.

Valent Biosciences in Osage is changing the way we look at fertilizer: from testing, to filtering both healthy and toxic bacteria, to distributing high quality plant food.

State officials say there’s nothing more important than sourcing local.

“We’re at 185 weeks of consecutive weeks of at least D-1 drought in the state of Iowa, and yet we grew one of our well, top five largest corn and soy-bean crops,” said Iowa State Secretary of Agriculture, Mike Naig.

“Well how does that happen? It happens because of innovation, tools that have been brought to the farm; better genetics, better traits, better tools, better equipment,” Naig continues. “What I see in agriculture is tremendous innovation, tremendous advancements, I don’t think people think of [agriculture] as being so innovative.”

“What we do so well in this state; growing a lot of corn, and a lot of soybeans, and adding value to that. In the case of Pure Prairie Poultry, it’s taking feed and creating high value high quality chicken, meat; that consumers are looking for,” said Naig.

“In the case of Valent Biosciences you’re taking again, soy-bean and corn products and turning that into high-value bio-based, crop protection tools.”

Overall, it was a great day for the Hawkeye State, they proved that you can have your corn and eat it too.

You can find more information on the biochemical advancements being made by Valent Biosciences HERE.