By: Connie Lindstrom, Director of Benchmarking, Benchmark Insights, LLC
Growing up in southern Minnesota in the 1980s, I admit that farm-town life felt like a dead end to me. My grandparents had retired from farming, and it hadn’t made financial sense for any of their kids to pick up the work, so our family farm was a thing of the past. My 4-H and FFA classmates struggled with their future plans; many joined the military or planned to move away—even their parents felt discouraged about the prospect of passing on their farm operations to my generation.
I left for college, then moved to the Twin Cities metro, but realized I missed small town living. I moved to west central Minnesota, where I renewed my appreciation for rural life but stayed with my “big city” job as a remote employee. I had a chance to reconnect with some of my old high-school classmates at a reunion, and you could have knocked me over with a feather as they described their prospering farm operations. While I hadn’t been paying attention, something had happened to make “successful corn farmer” a real occupation again. That something was ethanol, and learning about the biofuels revolution that had been occurring all around me was more of an eye-opener than I care to admit.
I spent the early part of my career as a business analyst and project manager for large-scale direct marketers. When the chance arose to meet with John Christianson about a role with his biofuels benchmarking team, I knew very little about ethanol production, but I knew I felt dissatisfied with working for the sake of simply selling more products. I wanted work that felt impactful for rural communities, like the ones I grew up in and raised my own family. The stories I had heard from my classmates inspired me, and as I thought about the turnaround for American farmers that the biofuels industry had created, I knew I wanted to be a part of ensuring a continued pathway for successful rural economies. That would feel like real work—a real contribution—not just a paycheck.
John and his team gave me the chance I was looking for 14 years ago. Today, thanks to ethanol, I have been able to advance my education and my career while living in a county that’s so rural we don’t have a single stoplight. My husband and I now co-own his third-generation farmland, and thanks to ag-based energy and bio-product initiatives, I feel confident we’ll be able to keep that land for our own kids. I’ve felt so fortunate to apply my skills and education to help keep the ethanol industry, and our program (now its own company, Benchmark Insights), moving forward. Our clients are always passionate about what they do; it is truly a joy to help them dig in and understand the reports we provide to inform their decision making. I can’t wait to see what the next 14 years will bring.
