ETHANOL: BLESSING OR BANE?

OSCO, Ill. -- Gary Asay raises thousands of hogs in this small town near the Mississippi River, and for years he's had nothing much around him but farmland stretching in every direction.

Now an ethanol plant will be opening just 25 miles to the south in Galva. Another is coming to Annawan, about 25 miles to the east, and another just 30 miles across the river in Buffalo, Iowa. The town of Fulton, 44 miles to the north, will be getting a big one, too, leaving Asay to wonder if all those factories amount to too much too soon: "Anyone who has looked into it is concerned," he says. "There are too many plants too close together."
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