By Adam Allington, KWMU
St. Louis – The America's Center in downtown St. Louis is hosting what organizers say is the largest ethanol conference in the world.
The International Fuel Ethanol Workshop is a three-day event directed at ethanol producers and biofuel service industries.
One common critique leveled against ethanol is that the rising cost of corn is driving the price of food and livestock feed to record highs.
Jeff Broin, CEO of POET, one of the nation's largest ethanol producers, said in the long run these costs should level out.
"As far as impacting food, we only take out the starch," Broin said. "The protein is returned to the feed market and so we're just using the starch in the corn, the other parts are actually still utilized for animal feed so the world does have a lot of starch in it."
Close to 80 new ethanol plants are currently under construction in the United States, including one in the Metro East town of Sauget.