HONOLULU -- Corn may have been on your Fourth of July menu but many people may not realize that corn seed is now the top crop in the state. The seed industry has hit the $100 million mark, surpassing pineapple and sugar.

Seed giants like Monsanto, Pioneer, Dow and Syngenta have been making inroads into the Hawaii market. Much of the prime agricultural lands in central Oahu and on neighboring islands are making way for the seed industry.

But here's a closer look at seed corn research in Hawaii and the man behind it.

Meet Jim Brewbaker. He is a horticulturist and geneticist at the University of Hawaii. His life's work is breeding corn and it's been partly through decades of his work with seed corn that Hawaii's seed industry is thriving.

"Most of the traits we are interested in yield strength ability to use the sun they are complicated," Brewbaker said.

There are about 1,500 varieties of corn grown in Hawaii and with the industry hitting $100 million this year Brewbaker said it's high time that people take notice.

Inside his Waimanalo offices are seeds he has sown at one time or another. There is corn from Ethiopia, Peru, Chile and Mexico. There's blue corn, white corn, yellow corn and even chocolate.

"This chocolate gene I got 50 years ago," Brewbaker said.

The chocolate corn he found is more nutritious, chock full of vitamin A.

He is working with universities around the world to develop a pest and disease resistant corn that tastes good. He is also working to try to find the best corn to grow in Hawaii or the corn with the highest yield of vitamin A for Mozambique.

"More than 300,000 400,000 children go blind every year. It's an almost unbelievable figure," Brewbaker said.

When Brewbaker walks through his fields of corn he said he carries with him a little, yellow book full notations of the strains he is working with. He tries to understand how disease and viruses affect corn crops and how to prevent their spread to attain the highest yield.

The demand for corn for food and fuel ethanol in particular has driven up prices. Corn hit $7 a bushel just last week.

"I really do believe Hawaii has the extraordinary opportunity to take advantage of this incredible environment where you can watch corn grow every day," Brewbaker said.

While corn seed is what's at the top of the list, Brewbaker said he sees great potential for all kinds of seed production from soybeans to cotton and all sorts of vegetable crops.