WHEN the U.S. ethanol industry was booming, Indiana farmer Paul Hodgen made good money selling about a quarter of his crop to a local facility that produced the corn-based fuel.

Now that plant has stopped churning out ethanol and has instead converted to a grain elevator for storage, Hodgen still sells his corn there, but for a fraction of the price.

“We are suffering for demand,” said Hodgen, a 40-year-old father of four.

Hodgen’s troubles reflect the increasing difficulties faced by America’s corn farmers as a meltdown in the ethanol industry hits the corn market – adding strains to farmers already facing poor weather and the U.S. trade conflict with China.

Some 13 ethanol plants have shut since November 2018, roughly 4.4 percent of the nation’s capacity, in a decline the biofuel industry blames on the Trump administration’s expanded use of waivers to exempt oil refineries from blending ethanol into gasoline. Several other ethanol plants temporarily reduced production during that time.

U.S. farmers have become increasingly reliant on the biofuel industry’s demand for corn, the most-grown U.S. crop. Ethanol producers took 37.3% of the U.S. corn crop in 2018, more than triple from 2002, according to Agriculture Department data.

The issue could test the Farm Belt’s support for President Donald Trump in next year’s election: farmers that have largely forgiven the administration for the dire impacts of the trade tensions are less forgiving when it comes to its biofuel policy.

“That was really felt as a betrayal,” Hodgen said.

(SD-Agencies)