Illinois State Representative Donald Moffitt knows agriculture. He grew up on a family farm, on which his son still farms (and Don occasionally helps). This has been a huge asset for him in his role as state representative because agriculture is the number one industry in both his 74th District as well as the state of Illinois.
Rep Moffitt was serving in this role seven years ago when Patriot Renewable Fuels broke ground on their ethanol plant (and in November they broke ground on a biodiesel plant) and I asked him what the feelings were like about ethanol during that time. He said there was a lot of excitement and there still is a lot of excitement.
“We’d been hearing about ethanol. We knew as farmers and producers we wanted to encourage the use of ethanol,” said Rep. Moffitt. “We were trying to get acceptance of ethanol years ago and finally one comes to our area with the construction of Patriot Renewable Fuels. So it was genuine excitement.”
The excitement went way beyond farmers, explained Moffitt. First there were the construction jobs to build the plant and that brought a lot of jobs and economic activity to the area. Once the plant was running, there were the permanent jobs and then he noted there is the benefit to the community such as value added benefits to corn, for example. Producers are now able to get a higher price for their corn.
“What do farmers do when they have a little more money? They spend it. They spend it in our local communities. They spend it on farm equipment. The spend it at the hardware store. They buy a new truck,” explained Moffitt. “So it’s a win-win for our state, for our community, for agriculture and we need to have this type of diversity.”
He added that something he rarely hears others talk about is that Illinois is leader in the railroad industry. Ethanol transports its products (both the fuel and the food/DDGs) in unitrains (80 plus cars) and these two industries complement each other. “Agriculture is bringing more business to the railroads of our state and that’s important too,” added Moffitt. “And then the railroads are helping agriculture by giving them access to markets farther away.”
Rep. Moffitt stressed that biofuels is a national security issue. “The production of biofuels is actually a national security issue. Because we don’t want to be dependent on foreign countries for our energy supply. Not all of them are friendly to the United States. But the American farmer is always going to be our friend. They are always going to deliver a product that they want to sell.”
Listen to my interview with IL State Rep Donald Moffitt here who talks about the connection between ethanol, agriculture and national security: IL State Rep Moffitt: Ethanol is Still Exciting
Check out the Patriot Renewable Fuels photo album.