Decatur goes from soybeans to sustainability

摘要

Decatur, Illinois, has become the "soybean capital of the world" thanks to an abundant water supply from the Sangamon River and favorable transportation routes. In 1922, a dam was built on the river by civic leader and industrialist A.E. Staley, founder of A.E. Staley Manufacturing (now a part of Tate & Lyle), one of the largest processors of corn in the country, and now second largest to Archer Daniels Midland Corporation, also based in Decatur. When the city set aside a portion of its federal Energy Efficiency Conservation Block Grant to fund a sustainability plan in 2009, the question of how to define sustainability rose up front and center.