Ethanol Investing and Farmer Ownership

With the ethanol industry attracting so much attention lately, it is inevitable that investors would move in to take advantage of the situation. The Des Moines Register published an article that shows that farmers are being bought out by investors, and new ethanol plants are mostly being built by investors.
It is a natural path for an industry growing so quickly to have Wall Street money piling into it. Although some say it could be a negative with profits going to investors rather than farmers, one has to consider the new money flowing into rural communities as a positive. The creation of new jobs in rural areas is also nothing to get too upset about.
Ethanol ownership shifting from farmers
"Of 42 ethanol plants under construction nationwide, six are farmer-owned, according to the Renewable Fuels Association trade group. That's a stark contrast to the ethanol boom of the 1990s, when farmer-owned co-ops built more than half of all plants, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.
About half of the corn ethanol plants in operation or under construction in Iowa are owned by farmers. But all of the new plants will include money from nonfarm investors." Des Moines Register
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