Big Stink On The Farm
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As a wave of political discontent swept the country this spring, American farmers were relatively quiet. That changed on July 6, when more than 2,000 farmers showed up in Peoria, Ill., to wave placards and applaud politicians' platitudes. Their rallying point? Ethanol, a heavily subsidized fuel additive made from corn, that's become a political hot potato.
The farmers are demanding that Washington continue its support for the stuff, despite claims that ethanol, contrary to its clean-air image has a pollution problem. "We've got to keep fighting," says Patrick E. Hennenfent, a Knox County (Ill.) farmer who sells more than half of his 600-acre corn crop to ethanol maker Pekin Energy Co. "We're not backing down."