Unlocking New Market Opportunities Based on Agriculture Practices Highlighted at Fuel Ethanol Workshop

A panel at the 2025 Fuel Ethanol Workshop (FEW) will spotlight how agricultural conservation practices can create new markets and profit opportunities for ethanol producers and farmers. Titled "Turning Agricultural Practices into Low-Carbon Farming Success,” the session will take place on Monday, June 9, from 1:00 to 2:30 p.m. in Room 213/214 at the CHI Health Center in Omaha.

Moderated by American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) CEO Brian Jennings, the panel will explore how the ACE-led Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) projects are helping farmers adopt soil health practices—such as reduced tillage, efficient fertilizer use, and cover crops—to generate localized, verifiable data that supports greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction measurements that can lead to access to lucrative carbon markets.

ACE is working alongside farmers, ethanol companies, university soil scientists, and U.S. Department of Energy carbon modelers to scientifically document the carbon value of conservation practices across different soil types, temperatures, and precipitation levels across the corn belt.

“We’re helping bridge the gap between conservation practices on the farm and clean fuel markets that reward those efforts,” said Brian Jennings, ACE CEO. “That means more value for farmers and ethanol producers, and real progress toward improving modeling tools and unlocking market opportunities which can create new demand and value for corn ethanol.”

Panelists include:

• Brennan Lewis, Research Associate, Agronomy and Plant Science, South Dakota State University, who will provide a progress update and share insights from field-level data and grower engagement.
• Brent Hoops, Commodities Director at Chief Ethanol Fuels, Inc., who will offer a perspective from the ethanol production side and describe how this work aligns with facility and farmer interests.
• Dr. Richard Ferguson, Professor of Soil Science at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, who will discuss soil health, carbon benefits, and productivity impacts of conservation practices.

Attendees will learn how real-world data and cross-sector collaboration can transform agricultural sustainability into measurable economic outcomes. Jennings will also participate in the Association Executives Q&A during the FEW general session on Tuesday morning, and ACE staff will be at booth #501 during the event, June 9-11.

BACKGROUND: In 2024, ACE was awarded $25 million through USDA’s Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) to help farmers adopt reduced tillage, nutrient management, and cover crops on approximately 100,000 acres across 167 counties surrounding 13 ethanol facilities partnering with ACE to implement the project in the 10-state region of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin. The project builds upon a South Dakota-based RCPP announced in the Fall of 2021. To date, ACE and its partners in South Dakota have enrolled more than 27,000 acres across seven counties in ag practices. For more information about this project, visit https://ethanol.org/usda-rcpp.