Top Ethanol Producer Files For Bankruptcy

One of the leading stories of 2008 has been skyrocketing commodity prices and the corresponding surge in land values throughout the Midwest, Great Plains, Southwest, and other mineral-rich areas of the country. Although the bubble has by no means burst, there are definitely signs of a slowdown, particularly given the recent bankruptcy filing by one of the nation’s largest ethanol producers, VeraSun Energy Corp. Read more

“The Land Market Has Never Been Stronger”

So says Mac Boyd, a broker at Farmers National in Arcola, Illinois. Boyd is just one of the many veteran real estate professionals who are closely monitoring the strongest farmland market in decades. Read more

The Clean Energy Scam

Amazing new diets, intriguing self-help books, a daily dose of St. John’s Wort – we are a country obsessed with quick fixes. Now, as Time points out in this cover story titled The Clean Energy Myth, we can add ethanol to our national wish list. Read more

Corn Drives Land Prices Higher and Higher

It’s official. The New York Times proclaimed in August that the market for Midwestern farmland was “hot,” a declaration akin to labeling Hurricane Katrina “dangerous” two weeks after it devastated the Gulf Coast. Anyone remotely familiar with the Corn Belt knows that rural land prices have skyrocketed for several years. Here’s a rundown of some recent figures. Read more