Jeff Broin Talks About Ethanol’s Affect On Rural America

While we were at The 2014 NAFB Convention in Kansas City, Missouri, we had the great opportunity to visit with Jeff Broin.

He is The Executive Chairman and Founder of POET. We talked about where ethanol fits into the big picture of the economics of rural America.

I asked the big questions such as, 'How has ethanol production affected corn prices?', 'How do corn prices affect land values?' and 'What would make a difference right now on corn prices when it comes to ethanol?'

Jeff provided me with a graph that showed how ethanol production had a direct impact on the price of corn. He pointed out that, 'As ethanol production increased, so did corn prices.'

He tells us, 'What we need now is we need to see ethanol at the pump go up from E10 to E15.' Jeff added, 'That would be 2 billion bushels of new corn demand.'

We agreed that corn prices coming back up would also bring land values up and help rural America immensely. But what about feeding the world?

Jeff believes global food demand not being the total answer for corn markets to stay stabil. He says it will take producing energy to keep up with production.