FEW 2026 Live Podcast with GEAPS CEO John Caupert

FEW 2026 Live Podcast with GEAPS CEO John Caupert

John Caupert is a featured guest on the Ethanol Producer Magazine Podcast

John Caupert joined Anna Simet for the Ethanol Producers Magazine Podcast live at the International Fuel Ethanol Workshop & Expo (FEW) to share insights on key trends shaping the industry.

Topics discussed:

• What GEAPS is and the role it plays in the industry
• Who GEAPS serves across the grain and grain processing industries
• The value GEAPS gains from attending and participating in FEW
• The transformational shift in agriculture, including changes in grain flow and workforce needs
• New technologies being deployed across the grain industry
• The collaborative relationship between GEAPS and BBI

Transcript:

Hi there and welcome to the Ethanol Producer Magazine podcast. I'm your host, Anna Simet. We are here at the International Fuel Ethanol Workshop in St. Louis. I'm here with John Caupert, who's CEO of GEAPS. John, hello and welcome to the podcast.

Hi Anna, great to see you. Thanks for having me.

We're so happy that you're here at the show, John. I think the best way to begin would be by having you tell our viewers who aren't familiar with GEAPS. Tell us about the organization and the role it plays in grain handling and processing industries. And then after that, I'd also really like you to talk about how you got to GEAPS and more about your background because it seems like everyone in this industry knows you.

Well, thank you Anna. So, first for those that aren't familiar with GEAPS, acronym that stands for Grain Elevator and Grain Processing Society; we're an organization that has actually been around for 96 years. We are a member-driven organization. I think the differentiator between our organization and maybe some other member-driven organizations is that our members are all people, individual people. And what's wonderful about that is that while many organizations and trade associations have companies that are members, our members are employees of those companies. So, because of that we have a natural collaboration right with every other member-driven organization in agriculture in grain and grain processing in the biofuel space. That's who GEAPS is as an organization. Yeah. And what do we do? What is our mission? Our mission is that for our members and others that we champion that we connect and that we serve the global grain industry. And that's why the 2026 fuel ethanol workshop right here in St. Louis has been so phenomenal for us. We've had the opportunity for three straight days to do just that: champion, connect, and serve this industry, its members, its producers.

Wonderful. But you didn't tell me about yourself, John.

All right, let's talk a little bit about me.

So, yeah, Anna, I'm John Caupert. I'm a farm kid from Illinois, born and raised an hour and a half from where we're sitting right now. Grain and livestock, grain and grain and uh livestock diversified farm. I'm directly involved in the farming operation to this day. Ironically, where I live is only about 25 minutes from where we're sitting right now, which was very convenient. I actually stayed here close to the workshop just for convenience for early morning meetings and maybe some evenings that went that went a little bit long. But no, and I'm a farm kid, but, you know, bachelor's and master's degree for both in agriculture economics and I've spent the entirety of my career in agriculture and in one way or another in the bulk handling and bulk processing of grain. The earliest part of my career I was a corporate contractor for Anheuser-Busch and their, you know, raw materials their grain side. From there I spent some time with National Corn Growers Association where I worked on their ethanol and co-products projects. In 2023 I retired as the executive director of National Corn to Ethanol Research Center. And it was during my 20 years there that this real personal and professional relationship that I have with BBI and Fuel Ethanol Workshop was born. In fact, I was the 2015 awardee of the Ethanol Excellence Award. And then upon retiring from National Corn to Ethanol Research Center, I was tapped on the shoulder by the great folks at GEAPS and have been leading their efforts for the last three years, and it's been phenomenal.

Wonderful. I think this is a good segue to my next question, John. Why is the ethanol industry important to GEAPS? Well, first off, I think the ethanol industry is important to everyone.

That is true. Great point, from the farmer to the consumer and everyone in between. But let's talk about why it is important to GEAPS and maybe in return why GEAPS is important to the fuel ethanol industry.

Love it. So when we think about the, you know, nearly 200 biorefineries that are out there, every single ethanol plant, regardless of size, scale, scope, or location, every single one of them, they start off first as a grain elevator. Truck comes in, a rail car comes in, and on that truck or on that railroad car is corn or maybe grain sorghum. that truck or that rail car, it's weighed, it's sampled, the grain is graded, the grain goes into a receiving pit, the grain goes into some form of storage, maybe it's a grain bin, maybe it's a silo. That's a grain elevator until that kernel of corner, that kernel of grain hits a hammer mill. That facility is a grain elevator. That is a direct connection to really what the foundation of GEAPS is all about, and the operations, the maintenance, the safety of those capabilities. So, when I joined GEAPS and realized, you know, we really need to focus on the P in the acronym, which is Processing, grain processing, in 2026, nearly 50% of our US corn crop will go towards domestic ethanol production. Again, with a grain elevator on the front of every single one of those plants and it was just a natural fit that made sense and it's working well; explain that's the first time I've heard that stat the entire conference, interesting 50%. I don't think that we'll hit 50%, but I think that we'll near okay 50%.

Which which is a nice little segue.

It's not, you know, probably in things that we're going to talk about, but this is why the farmer and, you know, I tell everybody, I've spent an entire career, 37 years in the grain handling, grain processing, ethanol industry, but I'm a farmer first, foremost, and always. So, even as a farmer, there's so many things here at Fuel Ethanol Workshop that are important to me.

Yeah.

Right. Priority number one for us as farmers, as corn farmers in Illinois, is E15. Policy that just simply makes sense. In fact, frankly speaking, I'm not even sure why it's policy. It's a consumer choice issue. Let's get this thing done. Well, E15 is great for the grain industry. It's great for the ethanol industry. It's great for my members. And uh there's been a lot of excitement here in St. Louis around that topic

Good segue to my next question. What benefits does GEAPS gain by being here? And you know, you did mention E15. What else are you excited about?

Well, we're excited about so many things. The number and you know, Anna, we had a strategy. We had some goals coming into FEW this year, but my goodness, what we definitely hadn't set was our expectations as high as what they turned out to be. Wow. The number of folks, it's not in the dozens, it's in the hundreds that have approached us and our booth, which ironically from the podcast location is directly behind us. But no, the number of folks that have approached us and have said, you know, I've got a customer or I've got a client and they've said, I need to talk to the folks at GEAPS. That was a little bit unexpected. So that's one of the reasons why this conference is so good for us. But another reason that this conference is so good for us is something that we talk about. There's two areas, Anna, that we talk about constantly at GEAPS to our members. Maybe we talk about them almost at nauseum, but it's about these transformational shifts that are going on in the world of agriculture. Transformational shifts I've not seen in nearly four decades. One of them is a transformational shift in the flow of grain. Where is grain going? Well, we already have 40 plus percent of our domestic corn crop goes to domestic fuel ethanol production. I do think there's a chance that that'll flirt with 50%, depending what happens with E15.

Yep.

We know that two out of every three soybeans that are produced goes to domestic soy crush. So because of this transformational shift in the flow of grain where grain is going, this is an industry, this is a conference that we need to be at. It's good for us. It's where our membership growth is at. The second thing that we focus on is this transformational shift in the workforce. Oh, my goodness. You know that there's a certain segment of the workforce that is retiring at a rate faster than what they can be replaced. So, the opportunity for collaboration and partnership in the areas of education and training are phenomenal, and we see those opportunities right here at fuel ethanol workshop as well. So we're going to be here for a very long time. BBI is an organization. The Fuel Ethanol Workshop is a conference and expo. They're partners as far as I'm concerned and as far as GEAPS feels as an organization. And it's just again just a great opportunity to be here.

Thanks for saying that. Love that. John, you did mention transformational shifts in agriculture.

Can you talk a little bit more about that?

Yeah, so transformational shifts in agriculture. We'll talk a little bit about the workforce side first. That's maybe the one of the easier ones to identify is that regardless of where I travel and it doesn't matter, and GEAPS by the way we have members in 46 states, six Canadian provinces, 15 countries around the world, we're truly an international organization. Regardless of where I travel, one of the number one thing that comes up is the need for help. I literally have had grain facilities, grain processing operations around the country that have said to me, and I quote, "John, if someone can walk and breathe, we will interview them." And they're not being flippant. They're not being facetious. They're being very, very realistic about it. There are some workforce challenges, some workforce shortfalls that are out there. And GEAPS plays a significant role in filling that gap. Whether it's our online education, our distance learning, our in-person collaborative training that we do, we are there to address those needs and those uh in those shortfalls. Again, that's a priority area. The second one again is that transformational shift in where grain is going. I'm sure there's a few, but I can't name one. Nearly every single ethanol plant that we talked to, they're expanding their storage capacity. They want more bushels of corn on hand. That creates flexibility for them. And where there's flexibility, there's opportunity. And then finally is on the technology side and the adoption of new novel technologies. And I think that that is something that, you know, historically and now more than ever is so important about FEW and why it's so critical for ethanol producers to be here so they can not only hear about but see these new technologies that are being deployed at a rate more rapid than I think that we've seen in probably the past two decades.

Wow. Okay, John. So, let's talk a little about technology.

Sure.

It's evolving across the industry. What innovations or trends are you most excited about when it comes to improving efficiency, reliability, or safety in grain handling and processing?

AI, right? We all hear about AI. It's the hot buzz word. Can't have a conversation anywhere without talking about AI. And while I'm certainly not the technical expert at all on AI, what I do share with our members is the following. Is that AI is not a technology to be afraid of. Yeah, just the opposite. AI is a technology to embrace. AI is not necessarily a technology to replace people. It's to enhance and make more efficient what people are what people are doing. I probably can't come up with a technology that's being talked about more so than AI right now, but there's other technologies that are out there that are being adopted again at a rate more rapid than I think we've seen in the past couple decades, especially on the bulk grain handling space, various forms of automation and technology. Technologies that maybe we have seen more frequently in the grain processing space such as ethanol kind of been household there. Things such as process control systems, distributed control systems, we've seen those there really since the dry grind industry, the real birth of it back in the early 2000s. Well, now we're seeing the distribution and deployment of those same technologies on the bulk grain handling space. The moment that the farmer, the moment that he or she delivers that load of grain, there is technology being employed there that historically hasn't been.

Love that; thanks for the insight, John. I just want to say we love having you here. Really appreciate GEAPS. You know, our relationship. And is there anything else that you want to add?

Yeah, I think, Anna, the part that I would be remiss if I didn't talk about for just a moment and perhaps it's a good closing, but is the relationship between GEAPS and BBI, not only here at Fuel Ethanol Workshop this year, but at Fuel Ethanol Workshop last year and at our own conference, GEAPS Exchange, which occurs every year in in in the third week of February. You know, GEAPS and BBI, we've got this trade event partnership. You know, it's a nonmonetary exchange. It is a promotion of each organization's conference and expo. And Anna, the beautiful thing about this relationship, this trade event partnership is that everyone is benefiting, everyone is winning. There's no competition here. It's all collaboration. And collaboration is the key to success. Whether you're a grain handler, whether you're a country grain elevator, a co-op, a river terminal, an export terminal, an ethanol plant, whether you're a vendor to those industries, everyone is benefiting from this collaborative relationship between, BBI and GEAPS, and very frankly speaking to the listeners out there, I believe that our organizations together have set the model by which can become a model for the industry overall. It's cliche, but that saying, a rising tide lifts all boats. The ethanol industry, it couldn't be more true.

Yeah, absolutely. And again, you see it here

And by the way, just a little shout out. So great to have FEW back in St. Louis again. And I live about 25 minutes on the Illinois side, but about 25 minutes from where we're at. It's great. So many friends here.

We picked it 'cause of you, John.

I appreciate that.

Well, you know what? This has been such a fun conversation and I'm so happy that you came on the podcast. Is there anything else that you want to add before you wrap?

I think that the only thing that I think is a shout out for next year.

Yes. You know, if you're if you're listening to this podcast, if Fuel Ethanol Workshop, if it's one of those conferences, and I've actually heard this a few times this week, there's some folks that I've ran into this week, a handful that have said, you know, John, uh FEW, it's something that we were attending and, you know, 15, 20 years ago when the when the industry was growing at a very, very rapid rate and we maybe spent a few years where we weren't going and now we're back. And boy, we're so happy that we're back. So for those that are the year in and year out attendees, we thank you for your registration, your attendance, but a special shout out to those that you know have heard about FEW and it's kind of been on the radar. Do we go? Do we don't go? Please attend. You know, our locations are right here in the central part of America, right in the breadbasket. You know, whether FW is in Omaha or Kansas City or St. Louis or wherever it is, you're always within, you know, 500 miles of where more than 50% of all US agricultural production is taking place, which means FEW is drivable for the overwhelming majority of folks employed not only in grain and grain processing and an ethanol, but in agriculture in general. So, if FW is not on your calendar for June of 2027, please get it on your calendar soon.

What he said, y'all. Well, John, again, thank you so much and we'll uh we will hopefully maybe we'll do this again next year.

Let's do it, Anna. Thank you.

Thank you so much, everyone. We have John Caupert from GEAPS. Hope you enjoyed this episode. Hope to see you at the next FEW. Until next time.