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A two-story, football field size corn pile loomed in front of me and my Dad. We had just finished harvesting corn silage.  We were catching our breath before the next task: throwing tires, which is exactly what it sounds like. 

Corn silage is the product of chopping up the entire corn plant into tiny pieces to use as feed for livestock. It’s usually stored in a DIY Tupperware container. Farmers pile up all the corn and cover it with a massive sheet of plastic. Then, you “seal” the Tupperware with tires － this is our version of giant Ziploc.

With my jeans and work boots covered in mud, my dad and I joked about how none of my college friends would choose to spend their Saturday afternoons on top of a corn pile, with their dad, throwing dirty tires around. I laughed, thinking about how my classmates in Massachusetts might react to my weekend activity. 

I grew up on my family’s dairy farm in Minnesota. Long story short, I love cows and early mornings. At Wellesley College, though, I am one of only a handful of farm kids. I grew up in a very agriculture-centered household. Both of my parents are agriculture advocates actively involved in regional, state, and even a few national organizations and they repeatedly told me that wherever I went, I needed to keep “telling our story.” That is, telling people not just what agriculture is, but what it means to rural people and communities like ours.

This matters now more than ever. 

If you’re up on DC politics, you know Congress (those “DC folks”) just passed a major infrastructure funding package and they’re currently considering another aimed at social programs. The passage of this bill – the Build Back Better (BBB) Act – with its support for rural America, would provide funding to support biofuels like ethanol.  

Minnesota is the nation’s 4th largest ethanol producer. The 18 plants across the state produce an average of 1.3 billion gallons of ethanol each year. Many of these plants are small and located in rural communities. Local plants like the Chippewa Valley Ethanol Company in Benson process about one in twenty of those gallons.  While such a contribution seems meager, Chippewa Valley is a key player in a network of local ethanol refineries that support small towns across Minnesota. 

The BBB Act would invest $960 million in the renewable fuels industry. These funds will go towards expanding or upgrading infrastructure, like fuel dispensers and storage tanks, to increase access to fuel with higher blends of ethanol, such as E10 and E15. 

But ethanol is about more than fuel. In Minnesota, the ethanol industry supports over 14,500 full-time jobs, generates $4.4 billion in state revenue, and provides $964 million in income for Minnesota households. Individuals, families, and communities rely on the ethanol industry. An investment in ethanol is an investment in the future of Minnesota’s rural communities. 

Out of a package totaling $1.7 trillion, $960 million isn’t very much. It’s about 5%.  Plus, these funds would be distributed over a 10-year period. Each year, that’s only $96 million in new funding that will be invested in the renewable fuels industry. 

If ethanol is going to continue supporting our local economies, we need to convince the “DC Folks” why this or even a more generous provision for renewable fuels must be a part of the BBB Act.  It matters not just today, but for the future. For an industry that contributed $43 billion to the nation’s economy, $96 million a year is kernels. Farming is a generational business and we need robust generational investments. 

The future of ethanol is not guaranteed.  We must tell our stories. The everyday tasks we take for granted and assume consumers might not understand make relatable stories. Throwing tires with my dad is really about spending time with my family helping out at our small businesses. 

Our Representatives and Senators know that agriculture is a major economy in Minnesota, but we need to make sure they consider what they’re investing in. Ethanol is a source of revenue, jobs, and stability for small Minnesota towns.  BBB makes for a flashy acronym and will be a valuable near-term investment. But if these investments are about supporting communities, there’s work to be done to ensure ongoing and expanded support for ethanol in the future.