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North Central US | Line by line here:
WS: Why are we not seeing spot adds and stories on the airways of the productivity of the American farmer.
GS2: You mean stories like MN Millennial Farmer, Welker Farms, those that get millions of views a month on YouTube, millions more as short form media on various social media platforms? There's a Brian's farm or something as well with a 12 acre shop or something. The ones that complain about how hard times are but never run out of fresh paint and lake homes and the like.
WS:We shipped another 2 million metric tons of corn last week.
GS2: And? Does the consumer even know what a metric ton is? Most here aren't impressed with that small number.
WS:Average price of gasoline in California today is $5.93/gallon.
GS2: from what I recall, quite a bit of that, close to a third is taxes.
WS2: California has done nothing but attack corn ethanol and the American farmer.
GS2: and the response has been...? Nothing.
WS:Gas in South Dakota is $3.56.
GS2: where? Rapid City or Souix Falls?
WS: The difference isn't all tax--- it is ethanol.
GS2: no, unsurprisingly it is tax and ethanol, but not the way you think. Get away from an ethanol plant and you will see prices rise, up to a dollar more for E10 compared to eastern ND/SD.
WS: Why isn't this story being told by the corn growers associations?
GS2: It is something I've asked quite a bit and haven't got an answer, what do they actually do?
WS:We are literally powering and supplying the world in corn and we still have surpluses.
GS2: you forgot abou Brazil and how they are doing it cheaper on former rainforest land. Going back to the corn association, that would be great marketing.
WS: The European Union when they aren't stabbing us in the back are destroying their own agriculture by regulation and ideology of domestic production only---no threat there.
GS2: they are also subsidizing the crap out of their farmers and are extremely protectionist. Take a look at their protests, you very rarely see a tractor older than 10 years old there. Plenty of money flowing there.
WS:The consumer isn't being told that ethanol is keeping the price of their gas in check.
GS2: because it isn't. Have you not seen fuel go up in price recently? Think about if you want to tell consumers ethanol is responsible for the price, if you did, it wouldn't be "those greedy oil companies" it would be "those greedy farmers who complain that they aren't screwing us enough as they sit at their lake homes".
WS: Why?
GS2: because the checkoffs and associations have been MIA for decades. What do they actually do?
WS: The consumer isn't being told we are breaking records in corn exports. Why?
GS2: Because we aren't the USSR. No one cares about the harvest when there is plenty of food. The only societies that do care about the harvest and production are those that starve. The harvest was a 12, 3, 5, 6, and 10 PM news segment in the USSR year round because they had perpetual rationing and starvation.
WS: Maybe quit sponsoring conference tournaments and agricultural events telling us how great we are and get off your ass and start telling the nation how important ethanol is for national security.
GS2: Don't bother, you are 30 to 40 years too late. While you were bringing in money hand over fist with RFS1 and the first ethanol boom, oil companies were perfecting Hydraulic Fracturing and Directional Drilling, making the US an oil exporting country for the first time since we won the war. We out produce and out export Saudi Arabia, we are oil independent, we don't need biofuels anymore like we did 30 years ago because between CAFE, other mileage requirements, and technology fuel consumption has basically leveled off in the US. The US is swimming in oil now. We lead the world again in oil and oil technology.
WS: Ethanol is literally putting food on your table
GS2: technically taking food off and making it into fuel which is inedible, something critics have loudly said since the first rumblings of Gasahol in the 1970s. Also it has actually decreased actual food production by reducing the amount of farms with livestock and total livestock in the country as you, formerly, no longer needed to be diversified and send most of your grain through an animal to make a profit. Ethanol has also taken land away from things like wheat and barley, so unless you really like corn bread, it's not putting any food on anyone's table but the ethanol farmer and the ethanol plant owner.
WS: by giving you more disposable income by energy savings.
GS2: have you seen fuel and food prices? People would rather have cheap food.
WS: we should be screaming this to our consumers.
GS2: the consumer doesn't care, the consumer over 25 years see the farmer as a welfare hog with mandate(the RFS mandates ethanol usage) after mandate, farm bill after farm bill, subsidies and programs on repeat, CRP payments for doing nothing, and then they look online and see farmers with lake houses, pontoons, brand new everything complaining about how hard it is to make it and how prices are low then watch them turn around and buy more new stuff.
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Ethanol's chance was in the early 2000s before it was mandated and how it should have been advertised was "clean air" in states like California, "lower prices" most everywhere else, and "freedom to chose" by not mandating its use in the RFS, it should have been refined to not give it the qualities it is known for today, how it likes to clean, redeposit, corrode, go stale surprisingly fast compared to normal gasoline, and eat older gaskets, but it wasn't and quickly became known for all of that and where were you? Where was the corn and ethanol associations? Oh right, steak dinners and "clean air" campaigns. "Clean air because its not running" is something I've seen before.
Ethanol now, what is its purpose? We have more than enough oil. Those who care for clean air bought an EV.
Edited by GS2 4/8/2026 17:57
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why are we not telling the story of the power of the American farmer....
