Now who's knocking ethanol?

Clayton Rye, Iowa farmer and ethanol investor

A front-page story in The New York Times yesterday cited oil industry executives as claiming that ethanol is “seen as [a]deterrent to expanding refineries.” The oil people are reported to have told Congress that as a result of increased ethanol production, oil refinery expansion plans have been put on the back burner, and that as a result current high prices for gas could become a long-term problem.

Ethanol, for all its promise as an alternative fuel source, seems to attract plenty of detractors these days--big oil, environmentalists, and assorted academics among them. Out here in Iowa, a lot of this controversy can seem pretty baffling. We thought we were maybe doing the world some good.

So, on same day as the Times story, it was good to hear from one of our Agriculture Online correspondents, Clayton Rye. Clayton farms near Hanlontown, Iowa, which he likes to point out is midway between Minneapolis and Des Moines, as well as home of Sundown Day on June 21.

In Clayton's piece, Ethanol detractors, he certainly admits his biases:

"Yes, I am a corn grower and yes, not only am I an ethanol investor, I also have an ethanol plant across the road from me that has been producing ethanol since 2004. The almost nonstop sound of the corn grinders is part of my everyday life."

Clayton's not real happy with the 30,000-foot view that too many folks take of the issues surrounding ethanol production:

"I would say to any writer who wants to tell all the facts on the impact and future of ethanol, especially to those writers on the East and West Coasts, that if you are going to write about corn production in Iowa...come out here and get your hands dirty with the rest of us. It means you will also have to get out of your car."

Clayton believes a lot of the criticism of ethanol is based on "threadbare, hackneyed arguments that are circulated like so much old gossip."

I invite you to come on over to Agriculture Online, get out of your car, and roll the cob with Clayton Rye for a while. I'm sure he'd be glad to talk with you about ethanol.