Abstract: The invention is a coating for agricultural products, which includes at least 10% of renewably sourced and biodegradable sugar esters. The invention is also a method of making a coated agricultural product, including the steps of providing a coating composition comprising at least 10% of a renewably sourced and biodegradable sugar ester, heating the coating composition to a temperature to reduce its viscosity to below about 100 cP, adding the coating composition to an agricultural product to form a mixture, and cooling the mixture to produce a coated agricultural product. The invention is also a method of reducing dust released from an agricultural product that includes the step of providing a coating composition comprising at least 10% of a renewable sourced and biodegradable sugar ester. Enough of the coating composition is added to the agricultural product to reduce the amount of dust released from the agricultural product by at least half.

Abstract: Monomers, polymers and copolymers are provided that incorporate at least one naturally occurring phenolic compound, such as a plant phenol, as well as methods for producing the monomers and polymers. Plant phenols possessing a reactive group in addition to the phenolic group, such as a double bond, aldehyde, ester, alcohol or carboxylic acid, are particularly useful. Plant phenols can be isolated from a plant material, or chemically or enzymatically synthesized.