No matter how you crunch the numbers, that's extraordinary growth for an industry that's become the rising star in our national quest to "go green" with biofuels. Minnesota is right in the thick of things, with 20 corn-based plants in operation and more in the planning stage.

But there's a reckoning ahead.

For decades, as better machinery, plant genetics and herbicides increased corn yields, farmers didn't exactly cash in. Increasing supply while demand remained largely stagnant kept corn prices in the neighborhood of $2 per bushel as recently as December 2005.

Thirteen months later, fueled by the ethanol market, prices topped $4, and farmers responded this year by planting nearly 93 million acres of corn, the most since 1944. Land values and cash rental rates for farmland are soaring, and many small communities near ethanol plants are experiencing an unprecedented economic boom.

Some farmers, however, are feeling a financial pinch, and therein lies the problem. Beef cattle, dairy cattle, hogs, turkeys and chickens eat corn -- as well as hay, soybeans and other agricultural products that are being squeezed off land in favor of corn.

It takes time, but rising feed costs eventually translate into higher prices at the supermarket. Milk is a prime example, with some analysts predicting prices of $5 per gallon by September. Beef, pork and poultry prices aren't rising quite as rapidly, but they'll catch up. The corn needed to produce a market-ready hog today costs $20 more than it did three years ago, and a portion of that cost, if not all of it, eventually will be passed on to consumers.

Source: Post-Bulletin