Matt Raben is a Southern Illinois farmer and the chair of the Illinois Corn Marketing Board.

Big news.

Uh, we spend, as a organization and as all the members, checkoff members and farmers, we spend a lot of hours, time trying to get the most bang for our buck, where we put these checkoff dollars.

And, uh, the State of Illinois announced $17 million allocation for the expansion of the National Corn-to-Ethanol Research Center, 15 million of that's coming from the State of Illinois, two million's coming from the Illinois Corn Growers Association checkoff dollars.

This started with that $2 million allocation saying that, "Hey, we're here.

We want to see new products.

We need to find demand." You're gonna hear that a lot from me.

Tell us a little bit about what you know about that expansion, what it could mean for the state.

Tell us a little bit about what you know about that expansion, what it could mean for the state.

I- it's a big deal for the markets, for the next generation farmers.

A lot of times is, just say as individuals, we look at what's in front of us and not looking outside the box or into the future.

For the next generation, th- this is huge.

We need demand.

You know, the research center today has fermentation centers, but what we've noticed over the years when we, you know, look at these, uh, evaluate these projects is it's not large enough.

We hear of a lot of companies that are doing research around ethanol and, and other products, starches and corn, that don't, can't find lab time.

When will we see some growth? When will we see, you know, some action here?

also a goal.

This was one of these long-term goals.

We invest a small amount into this, but you have, from different starches, from my understanding in corn, you can break it down even more to come up with maybe chemicals that you can use to replace, say, petroleum products.

We have to support these industries.

They might be small today.

It's just like ethanol was a long time ago.

One of these times, something will stick, and it's going to expand and create more demand.

He says other aspects of Chekhov-funded research are paying off in the new 45Z Clean Energy Production Tax Credit.