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This is a great story about the next Wall Street land rush:

With big profits gushing forth from ethanol plants, dozens of Wall Street bankers, in loafers and suits, have been descending on the cornfields of the Midwest promising to make thousands of farmers rich overnight.

But the farmers aren't budging:

“Farmers have never been the best moneymakers,” said Mark Casner, 30, a seventh-generation farmer and a member of the board of Mid-Missouri Energy, the ethanol operation here. He is against selling out. “They have gotten in it because they love what they do. I would be tortured if I couldn’t be here doing what I do.”

Despite the gold rush atmosphere, only two farmer-owned ethanol plants are known to have been sold to outsiders: one in Iowa and one in Minnesota.

Ah...but is the ethanol boom going to last? Some think not:

On Wall Street, however, many investors find the whole farmers’ debate baffling.

“They are out of their minds,” said Peter C. Fusaro, a principal at the Energy Hedge Fund Center, which tracks such funds. “We see a glut of ethanol coming.”

How is this going to play out?

Outside investors are pestering farmers to sell out now so they can take part in the ethanol boom with existing plants — before the ethanol market might turn sour. With dozens of new plants coming online next year, the wait to start construction of a new one is three years, said Ron Fagen, chief executive of Fagen Inc., the country’s biggest builder of ethanol plants.

Let's wait and see...

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