Nitrogen fertilizer is used on all crops produced in this country, but it is a key plant nutrient to produce corn a critical crop to Illinois farmers.

Illinois corn farmers are the Nation's number two exporter of feed grains.

Corn is a greedy crop, as farmers will tell you.

When farmers plant the same fields season after season and cannot afford to replace nutrients taken up by their crops, the soil is literally mined of life.

But, also, before I even go on the Medicare prescription drug debate, I always tell the folks in rural Illinois, and I represent 30 counties south of Springfield down to Indiana and Kentucky, that in this bill is the best rural package for hospitals ever passed.

By furthering the use of ethanol, farmers are presented with the opportunity to produce a cash crop by collecting their agricultural wastes.