The last 12 months were a bit of a roller coaster ride for the ethanol industry. Rising prices in gas throughout much of the year increased demand for the product, but the combination of low gas prices and high corn prices toward the end of 2008 caused the industry to struggle.
Ethanol plants across the country reduced production or shut down and VeraSun Energy, one of the largest ethanol producers in the U.S. filed for bankruptcy in November.
However, the government still wants 11 million gallons of ethanol in 2009 to offset the dependence on foreign oil, and some say the increased demand will hurt farmers.
"We have about a billion-gallon capacity of ethanol production sitting idle because the (U.S. ethanol) industry built up too much capacity," FarmEcon president Tom Elam told the Peoria Journal Star. "There's so much capacity that American agriculture can't supply enough corn."
Elam said that the rise in feed prices, which is partially attributable to ethanol production, has hurt many livestock farmers and only the corn farmers are profiting.
