AUDIO: Denny Friest, corn and soybean farmer
A Korean Bioethanol advisory team learns about ethanol while visiting Iowa.
A U.S. Grains Council (USGC) trade team of Korean grain buyers, researchers, scientists, end-users and government officials visited Iowa earlier this week as part of a learning journey to the United States to get in-depth information about the U.S. ethanol industry. One stop was at Dennis Friest?s farm in Radcliffe.
?Today we showed them our general farming operation. It includes corn and soybeans along with far to finish pigs. So we?ll showcase our hog operation too,? Friest said.
The trip like this comes at an interesting time when the president has talked about pulling out of the U.S. Korea Free Trade Agreement. Senator Joni Ernst says this is an important deal for U.S. farmers.
?The negative impact to our family farms if we backed out of this agreement, would not only hurt us in the trade areas and strong economies supporting these families could have geopolitical ramifications as well,? Ernst said.
This team?s visit included stops at the Iowa Corn office, Jolene Riessen?s diversified cattle and row crop farm, Quad County Corn Processors Ethanol Plant in Galva, Golden Grain Energy Ethanol Plant in Mason City, as well as meetings with representatives from Kum & Go and the American Lung Association.
