Twenty years ago, on a farm outside my hometown of Aberdeen, South Dakota, I stood with a few dozen local corn growers in a machine shack, huddled around a still. We were trying to show the farmers that their crops could be turned into what we then called gasohol -- a liquid fuel that could become our country's transportation fuel of choice. Farmers immediately understood the power of ethanol, and they have brought us to the point where energy independence is in sight. Now the rest of us need to do our part.