This summer Samsung introduced a new cell-phone made out of corn. This new "green" phone won a green label from the Korea Eco-Products Institute, making it the first Korean handset to carry the official designation. This quickly impressed the media with its message: that devices traditionally made from toxic materials could be made more ecologically, i.e., with stuff that will bio-degrade and won't pollute our landfills.

But how "green" is "green" really? Yes, the phone itself might be eco-friendly, but bioplastics made from corn require special recycling methods, which make extremely inefficient use of energy and pose their own environmental problems.

And what about the industry that goes into producing the phones? A phone like this only increases our reliance on corn, which is proved to be among our most problematic crops. Not only does it require an enormous amount of space to grow, farmland that could be more effectively used for grains and soybeans, but its by-products are among our most damaging: namely, corn syrup and ethanol.

Corn syrup, of course, is the main ingredient in many soft drinks and candies, making it a leading culprit in the rise in national obesity and type-2 diabetes. And growing corn for ethanol has been suggested to pose great harm to our water supply.

I say the folks at Samsung are on the right track, but they should sharpen their pencils and return to the R&D lab. A non-plastic cell-phone is a wonderful idea, but does it need to be made out of corn?

[Image Credit: Jamie Lantzy from Wikimedia Commons]