Ethanol provides a vital value-added market for corn and other commodities, providing an economic boost to rural America.  Demand created by ethanol production increases the price a farmer receives for grain.  An increasing number of farmers are joining together in cooperatives to build ethanol production facilities - thereby directly taking advantage of the value-added market through ownership. *This information is made available by the Renewable Fuels Association FACT: According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, ethanol production adds 25-50 cents to the value of a bushel of corn, or as much as $5.5 billion over the entire corn crop. FACT: Ethanol production is the third largest use of U.S. corn, utilizing a record 1.43 billion bushels of corn in 2005. The industry processed a record 13% of the domestic corn crop and 15% of the domestic grain sorghum crop into ethanol and valuable feed co-products. FACT: Since 1990, farmer-owned cooperatives are responsible for the majority of new ethanol production capacity. FACT: A modern dry-mill ethanol refinery produces approximately 2.8 gallons of ethanol and 17 pounds of highly valuable feed coproducts called distillers grains from one bushel of corn. In 2005, ethanol dry mills produced approximately 9 million metric tons of distillers grains.  Ethanol wet mills produced approximately 430,000 metric tons of corn gluten meal, 2.4 million metric tons of corn gluten feed and germ meal, and 565 million pounds of corn oil.  The U.S. exports distillers dried grains with solubles mainly to Ireland, the UK, Europe, Mexico and Canada. FACT: Ethanol production does not reduce the amount of food available for human consumption. Ethanol is produced from field corn fed to livestock, not sweet corn fed to humans. Importantly, ethanol production utilizes only the starch portion of the corn kernel, which is abundant and of low value. The remaining vitamins, minerals, protein and fiber are sold as high-value livestock feed. An increasing amount of ethanol is produced from nontraditional feedstocks such as waste products from the beverage, food and forestry industries. In the very near future we will also produce ethanol from agricultural residues such as rice straw, sugar cane bagasse and corn stover, municipal solid waste, and energy crops such as switchgrass.