When I ran into Mike Wagner here at the Cellulosic Ethanol Summit I was with a group and got introduced to him. I said “I bought a water bed from you in 1983.” He blinked and said that I sure did. That’s been 24 years ago. At the time he was leaving Florida Farm Bureau Federation and I had just been hired. Let’s not dwell on the water bed thing.

Anyway, Mike is a mover and shaker in the corn and ethanol industry and he’s not sitting still. There will soon be a number of ethanol plants in operation in Ohio. To help them and the biodiesel industry as well, he’s formed a new group called the Buckeye Renewable Fuels Association. Mike says the Ohio Corn Growers are playing a key role in the development of this organization.

Mike and I sat down to talk about BRFA. He says they’re just getting started and that there was a real need for an organization like this. BRFA will work on regulatory, legislative, promotional and educational issues of behalf of the industry. He says they’ve got 5 ethanol plants coming on line in the next 90 days with 2 or 3 more soon after that. Right now he encourages anyone wanting more information to contact the Ohio Corn Growers office. The new organization will hold it’s first board meeting later this year.

You can listen to my interview with Mike here: cellulosic-summit-07-wagner.mp3