Breakout Session IV
Economic Sustainability of the Biobased Products Industry
Bruce Rastetter Bruce Rastetter is an Iowa entrepreneur. Bruce was raised on a farm outside of Iowa Falls and went to the University of Iowa, gaining a BA in Political Science. After finishing school at the University of Iowa, Bruce decided to return home to the Iowa Falls area and sought to build his own business. Bruce founded his own small feed management business that eventually also incorporated a building construction business and a swine production business. In 1994, Bruce merged those three separate businesses – feed management, building construction and swine production into one business enterprise called Heartland Pork Enterprises. Bruce served as Heartland’s CEO until 2004, growing the company to the thirteenth largest pork producer in the United States. During that time, Heartland grew from 45 employees to 550 employees while building $200 million in facilities in three states. During that time, he coordinated and streamlined animal production, genetics and marketing while raising 1,100,000 pigs annually. In 2004, Bruce successfully guided the acquisition of Heartland Pork by Christensen Farms of Sleepy Eye, Minnesota. The resulting company became the fourth largest pork producer in the United States, raising over 3,900,000 pigs annually. In 2003, Bruce founded Hawkeye Renewables. Bruce has served as the CEO of Hawkeye since its inception and has overseen Hawkeye’s growth to become America’s third largest pure-play ethanol company. Hawkeye currently operates two plants and produces over 235 million gallons of ethanol. In addition, Hawkeye is constructing two additional plants that will come online in 2008, boosting production to over 450 million gallons per year.
Jeff Stroburg Jeff Stroburg has been instrumental in shaping the agricultural industry for more than
25 years. Currently, Stroburg serves as the chief executive officer of Renewable Energy Group®, Inc., as well as
chief executive officer of West Central® Cooperative. Renewable Energy Group, Inc. is the biodiesel industry leader of B100 sales and is the only
full-service biodiesel company offering plant management, risk management, raw material procurement, plant
construction, biodiesel production and biodiesel sales and marketing services. Renewable Energy Group, Inc.
markets SoyPOWER® biodiesel to customers in many industries including on-highway fleets, original equipment
manufacturers, maritime, military, home heating and agriculture industries. West Central is a diversified grain handling and soybean-processing cooperative. The
corporate headquarters at Ralston, Iowa, acts as the hub for the company’s trade territory and markets
products through most of North America and to several foreign destinations. West Central’s soy
manufacturing complex processes more than nine million bushels of soybeans annually in its state-of-the-art soy
processing plant. In 2007, West Central’s combined and consolidated annual sales were $468 million. Stroburg currently serves on the board of directors for National Council of Farmer
Cooperatives, Associated Benefits Corporation, Biosciences Alliance of Iowa, BIOWA Executive Committee,
Cooperative Business International, Iowa State University’s Center for Crops Utilization Research
Industry/Stakeholder Advisory Board and the National Grain and Feed Association. Stroburg is a Board of Trustee
for the Graduate Institute of Cooperative Leadership (GICL). Rob Anex Rob Anex is an Associate Professor of
Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering at Iowa State University.
He holds a BS and MS in mechanical engineering and a PhD in environmental engineering from the University of
California, Davis. Dr. Anex is an expert on biofuel production
systems considered from “field to fuel”. He is the principal investigator of projects assessing the
impacts of the widespread adoption of lignocellulosic biomass conversion technology; developing productive,
efficient, and sustainable strategies for using corn stover biomass as a feedstock; and nutrient cycling in coupled
agricultural and industrial systems. He is the Associate Director of the Office of Biorenewables Programs at Iowa
State, a member of the editorial board of the International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, and an editor for the
Journal of Industrial Ecology. Chad Hart Chad Hart is a U.S. Agricultural Policy Analyst for the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) at Iowa State University. He serves as head of CARD’s new division, Biorenewables Policy. His research interests are in the examination of biorenewable fuels production and the utilization of crops for that production, the analysis of federal agricultural program effects on the biorenewable fuels industry, and the impact of biorenewable fuels expansion on the traditional uses of agricultural crop production. Chad Hart is also the U.S. Policy and Insurance Analyst with the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute (FAPRI) at Iowa State University. In this capacity, he is responsible for directing econometric and modeling efforts for the crop insurance component of the FAPRI modeling system. Chad Hart maintains the Loan Deficiency Payment (LDP) interactive website for the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD). Chad received a B.S. in economics with minors in mathematics, history, and astronomy from Southwest Missouri State University in 1991. He received his Ph.D. in economics and statistics in 1999 from Iowa State University.
