The production of ethanol has been increasing for these 10 years in the United States because the federal government implements the agricultural policy promoting high value-added agricultural products and the domestic consumption of ethanol is expanding due to its cleanness to the environment. For the US which is the strongest agricultural exporter in the world, it is an urgent need to create new high value-added agricultural products in order to establish employments in the rural area and compete against new agricultural exporting countries like Brazil and Argentine in the international grain market, like corn because the US has been losing its market share in the corn bulk market. For that purpose, ethanol can be a very good example. The ethanol production is concentrating on the so-called Corn-belt area like Iowa and Minnesota. In the State of Minnesota, groups of farmers are strongly involved in the production of ethanol and many of them are called “New Generation Cooperative that has a closed-membership system and pursues high value-added agricultural products. In the State of Minnesota, ethanol manufacturers, which are most1y New Generation Cooperatives, have created about 4,000 employments for these 10years because of uniqueness of the cooperative and the support by the state governments. Therefore, the rural development based on the ethanol production by New Generation Cooperative is a key to success for revitalization of the rural economy and international competitiveness in the international corn market.
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