Welcome to Carbon Cowboys | From Drilled

Summary

Podcast Summary: "Welcome to Carbon Cowboys" (Drilled, featured on What's Your Problem?)

Host: Amy Westervelt (Drilled), with reporting by Felipe Sabrina (Intercept Brazil)
Release Date: May 12, 2026
Listen on: iHeartPodcasts, Pushkin Industries

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Episode Overview

This episode presents the first installment of "Carbon Cowboys," a new season from the climate investigative podcast Drilled. The story unpacks how major U.S. agribusiness figures—centered on Bruce Rastetter, Iowa’s ethanol kingpin—have exported U.S.-style corn ethanol and carbon capture strategies to Brazil. Through on-the-ground reporting and in-depth interviews, the episode explores the entanglement of big agriculture, green tech, and so-called climate solutions in both the U.S. Midwest and the agricultural frontier of Mato Grosso, Brazil. The episode argues these solutions largely serve industrial interests, are heavily marketed as green, and often ignore their murky climate impact and roots in land speculation, colonial legacy, and political lobbying.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Pitch: U.S. Carbon Capture Meets Brazilian Officials

• [02:28] Brazilian government officials visit North Dakota and Iowa to learn about new carbon capture and storage (CCS) tech connected to ethanol production.
• Ethanol plants release CO₂ during production; U.S. companies pitch CCS as a green fix, storing and selling the captured CO₂, even if some is used to extract more oil.
• Summit Carbon Solutions aims to build the "Midwest Carbon Express," a pipeline linking dozens of ethanol plants from Iowa to North Dakota.
  • Major investors include Harold Hamm of North Dakota oil fame.
  • The project faces intense cross-partisan resistance over land use and eminent domain.

Corn Ethanol: Greenwashed or Green?

• Amy Westervelt [04:49]:

  “I keep waiting for people to stop calling corn ethanol green. Its carbon footprint is similar to regular old gas. It requires around 30 times as much land as solar, plus lots of water and chemical pesticides and fertilizers. But industrial agriculture gets loads of subsidies from it, so they're always finding a way to keep it alive.”

• Despite dubious environmental benefit, corn ethanol survives thanks to U.S. subsidies; 2022’s Inflation Reduction Act provides a new lifeline via sustainable aviation fuel markets—but only if producers embrace CCS.

Bruce Rastetter: The Man Behind the Expansion

• [06:52 – 07:21] Rastetter, co-founder of Summit Carbon Solutions and major Iowa agribusiness figure, pushes CCS to stay ahead as ethanol's "green" credentials are questioned.

  “Without continuing to attain new markets, the ethanol industry is in jeopardy. So that's what lowering carbon scores... is about.” — Bruce Rastetter ([07:21])

• Rastetter has a controversial reputation in Iowa for industrial agriculture practices and using political clout.

• Jess Mazur (Sierra Club, Iowa) [05:41]:

  “Everyone’s got an opinion of him. And he's really, really good at being able to avoid ever having to be in the public. He doesn't get interviewed. He doesn't take media requests. Kind of secretive.”

The Export Model: From Midwest to Mato Grosso

• The episode then pivots to how Rastetter and other American ag interests moved into Brazil, specifically Lucas do Rio Verde, a frontier town designed by Brazil’s government as an agricultural hub.

• Felipe Sabrina [09:40]: Describes the placement of a kitschy giant pig statue in Lucas, symbolizing the area’s transformation by big ag.

  “This town is a fiction designed and built by the government to impose development on this region... Lucas was entirely created to serve agriculture and its owners.”

• The American “carbon gold rush” arrives as land, government subsidies, and global markets beckon.

Community Interplay: Prosperity, Power, and PR

• Local growth, health clinics, and prosperity are cited as wins, but the episode emphasizes how public projects (like maternity wards) are used by business partners (like Rastetter) to secure influence and craft positive public perception.
  • [14:25] The “Bruce Rastetter maternity ward” becomes a local talking point, but most locals can’t say why it carries his name.

Unpacking the Network: American-Brazilian Collaboration

• The Franz Brothers, influential local landowners with ties to U.S. and German ag, serve as intermediaries for Rastetter’s venture.

  • Background: Lucas do Rio Verde’s transformation is rooted in state-led colonization strategies that displaced indigenous populations and promoted industrial agriculture.
  • [22:15] Paired through networking with Iowa’s then-governor Terry Branstad.

• Corey Melby (ag consultant and self-described ag “fixer” in Brazil) recounts how he arranged farmland tours for Americans, including Rastetter, and helped broker the crucial deal between Rastetter and the Franz Brothers.

  “I've been on every farm in Mato Grosso. I have that 25-year arc of experience now, of the good, bad and ugly of Mato Grosso. And believe me, there's plenty of all of it.” — Corey Melby ([25:29])

The Real Motive: Reputation and Opportunity

• Back in Iowa, Rastetter’s reputation is battered due to failed land grabs and local opposition. In Brazil, however, he’s feted as an agribusiness leader, reinforcing the dynamic of American business seeking more receptive environments abroad.

  • “...if I had the choice of, you know, being a place where everybody hated me in a place where people fawned over me, I'd probably go to people fawned over me.” — Jess Mazur ([29:42])

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Amy Westervelt [04:49]:

  “I keep waiting for people to stop calling corn ethanol green. Its carbon footprint is similar to regular old gas.”

• Jess Mazur [05:41]:

  “He doesn't get interviewed. He doesn't take media requests. Kind of secretive. He lives out in the middle of nowhere in Hardin County, Iowa.”

• Felipe Sabrina [09:40]:

  “If you're imagining some sort of tasteful bronze statue, think again. This is a massive Porky Pig looking thing, wearing lederhosen and a bright green hat, holding a corn cob.”

• Bruce Rastetter [07:21]:

  “Without continuing to attain new markets, the ethanol industry is in jeopardy. So that's what lowering carbon scores this project on the pipeline is about.”

• Corey Melby [28:35]:

  “Three years to close on this damn farm. But that farm purchase then opened the door with trust and capital. Hey, let's build an ethanol mill in Lucas. Together.”

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Important Timestamps & Segment Guide

• 02:28 – 04:49: The U.S. carbon capture pitch—a Brazilian delegation observes ethanol-linked CCS.
• 04:49 – 06:52: Ethanol’s real climate impact and continued subsidies in U.S. policy.
• 06:52 – 07:39: The business motivation for CCS; the Summit Carbon Solutions project.
• 09:40 – 11:13: Lucas do Rio Verde’s transformation; kitschy branding, monoculture, and the visibility of ag-business.
• 14:25 – 15:02: Maternity ward in Brazil named after Bruce Rastetter.
• 20:09 – 22:13: Mato Grosso’s colonization history; the German-rooted Franz Brothers’ rise.
• 22:15 – 23:17: Bridging Iowa and Brazil: Governor Branstad introduces the main players.
• 23:59 – 28:09: Corey Melby unpacks the role of consultants and partners in the U.S.-Brazil ethanol nexus.
• 28:59 – 29:42: Rastetter’s challenging reputation in the U.S. versus his welcome in Brazil.

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Tone and Narrative

The episode’s tone is investigative, sharply critical, and often wryly humorous—particularly when highlighting the contradictions in corporate “climate solutions” and the often farcical public relations surrounding them. Local color, firsthand reporting from Brazil, and industry insider interviews help bring nuance to the soaring rhetoric of “green capitalism.”

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Summary & Takeaway

"Welcome to Carbon Cowboys" reveals how American ag tycoons—including Bruce Rastetter—are exporting models of corn ethanol and carbon capture under the guise of climate solutions, often prioritizing profits and expansion over actual emissions benefits. The story highlights the complex web of players—consultants, business partners, U.S. politicians, and Brazilian local elites—who facilitate these ventures, and asks listeners to scrutinize the green claims attached to these high-stakes projects, both in Middle America and on the Amazon’s edge. Through on-the-ground stories and candid interviews, the episode sets up a season-long investigation into the real impacts and motivations of the so-called "carbon gold rush."

Transcript

[Amy Westervelt]

This is an iHeart podcast.

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[Amy Westervelt]

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[Amy Westervelt]

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[Bruce Rastetter / Corey Melby / Paolo Franz (various interviewees)]

hey, it's Jacob. Today we are going to play for you an episode from the new season of a podcast called Drilled. Drilled is a show about the way corporate corruption and political operatives have stoked climate change denial and delayed real action. The new season is called Carbon Cowboys, and if you want to hear more, you can find the show Drilled Carbon Cowboys wherever you get your podcasts.

[Amy Westervelt]

In early September 2025, a handful of Brazilian government officials headed to North Dakota on a mission. It was a technical mission. They were there to see a shiny new green technology in action. The idea behind this new technology was simple. The when you turn corn into ethanol, it generates carbon dioxide. And that's a problem if you're trying to be a green fuel. But now, people from Iowa to North Dakota were capturing that carbon dioxide, storing it, and selling it. Never mind that they were selling it to people who would inject it underground to get more oil out, some of it would surely still stay underground. And if you tilted your head and squinted a bit, that made it a climate solution. The American company selling the Brazilians on this idea had a lot riding on these officials believing that carbon capture connected to ethanol was a great green success story. Win, win for industry and the environment, an American dream they could take home to Brazil. But had the visiting bureaucrats scanned the local newspapers, they might have found a different story.

[Radio Advertising Narrator]

If you live in Iowa, your land,

[Amy Westervelt]

your water, and your voice could all be at risk, thanks to a man named Bruce Rastetter. You know, essentially paying him to capture CO2 at ethanol plants and then shipping it across private land and public land and then disposing of it somewhere, many states away. On September 2, the Brazilian contingent met with an Iowa company called Summit Carbon Solutions. Summit has been trying, trying for years to build a carbon capture pipeline to connect dozens of ethanol plants from Iowa to North Dakota. It's called the Midwest Carbon Express Project. Harold Hamm, who controls many of North Dakota's oil fields and is an energy advisor to President Trump, is a major investor in the company. Bruce Rastetter is the company's co founder. He's also founder and executive chairman of its parent company, Summit Agricultural Group. For all their cheerleading of the project to visitors, the Summit pipeline is years behind schedule and facing multiple political and legal roadblocks. In fact, it's managed to do what almost no politician, issue, or campaign has been able to do in the US for years. United far left and far right populace. People from both sides hate this pipeline. For Raz Dutter, it's not the first time he's faced opposition, especially in his home state of Iowa. Anyone who remotely follows politics or agriculture. You say Rastetter, you're going to get a response. Jess Mazur is the conservation coordinator for the Sierra Club, Iowa. For Jess, the carbon pipeline was not the first time she dealt with Bruce Rastetter. They know who it is, and they go, oh, you know, that guy did this, or that guy put a factory farm near my house. Or he's the one that, you know, got Iowa State in trouble. So I think everyone's got an opinion of him. And he's really, really good at being able to avoid ever having to be in the public. He doesn't get interviewed. He doesn't take media requests. Kind of secretive. He lives out in the middle of nowhere in Hardin County, Iowa. Ras Dutter got his start as a big hog farmer. From there, it wasn't a big leap to growing Corn. And then, like a lot of corn growers, that led quickly to getting into the corn ethanol business. As a longtime climate reporter, I keep waiting for people to stop calling corn ethanol green. Its carbon footprint is similar to regular old gas. It requires around 30 times as much land as solar, plus us lots of water and chemical pesticides and fertilizers. But industrial agriculture gets loads of subsidies from it, so they're always finding a way to keep it Alive. And in 2022, Congress handed it its latest lifeline.

[Bruce Rastetter / Corey Melby / Paolo Franz (various interviewees)]

The Inflation Reduction act contains some really incredible things for our shareholders. It contains sustainable aviation fuel. We think that's an incredible part of decarbonizing the planet.

[Amy Westervelt]

The Inflation Reduction Act, Biden's big climate policy created a whole new revenue stream for the corn ethanol guys. Now they could sell to airlines, but only if they embraced carbon capture. Bruce Rastetter to the rescue.

[Bruce Rastetter / Corey Melby / Paolo Franz (various interviewees)]

So I think without continuing to attain new markets, the ethanol industry is in jeopardy. So that's what lowering carbon scores this project on the pipeline is about. With 34 ethanol plants across the upper Midwest, but in particular, Iowa.

[Amy Westervelt]

Summit Carbon Solutions still talks about the project today as a way to open up new markets for Iowa corn farmers. So the company was caught off guard when people across multiple states began organizing against the Midwest Carbon Express. And it quickly became a big problem because Rastetter was not just the ethanol kingpin of Iowa. His company was also the majority owner of a Brazilian ag company, FS Fueling Sustainability. And he'd helped to make corn ethanol a thing in Brazil, too. Now Summit is trying to make carbon capture happen there, too. Welcome to Drilled Season 15 Carbon Cowboys. I'm Amy Westervelt, and this season we've partnered with the amazing reporters at the Intercept Brazil to learn more about what Rastetter is doing down there.

[Felipe Sabrina / Intercept Brazil Team]

I'm Felipe Sabrina with the Intercept of Brazil. I will be hosting the Portuguese version of this season over on the Intercept Brazil feed. This is a story about how the ethanol kingpin of Iowa became the king of corn in Brazil and how a

[Amy Westervelt]

bunch of ideas that are great for the oil and ag industries got rebranded as climate solutions and created a carbon gold rush. A few months ago, Felipe started telling me about this giant pig statue that greets people near Bruce Rastetter's home base in Brazil. Because, yes, his partners in Brazil also started out as pig farmers. These guys are all still in the pig business, and, boy, do they love pigs. When Felipe sent me a picture of this pig statue, I was kind of shook. If you're imagining some Sort of tasteful bronze statue. Think again. This is a massive porky pig looking thing wearing lederhosen and a bright green hat holding a corn cob.

[Felipe Sabrina / Intercept Brazil Team]

And it even has a name, Lucinha, or little Lucas. Because the town is called Lucas do Hioverde, it tells you actually a lot about this place. It was proposed by one of the largest landowners in the area. Big agriculture business guy. He comes from a German family, which is why the pig is wearing a German outfit. Around 50 years ago, the Brazilian agriculture industry came to this place looking for a cheap and easy land grab. Today, the American agriculture industry is doing the same thing.

[Amy Westervelt]

This audio you're listening to with the epic background music is from a promotional video by the Lucas to Rio Verde city government. Highlighting the wonders of the city, the video mixes images of macaws, forests in the sunset, and large cotton, soybean and corn fields. The city government wants you to know that Lucas is the city of opportunities. It has more than 95,000 inhabitants and produces more than 2 million tons of grain per year. The narrator of the video says, we are one of the fastest growing cities in Brazil. And then the screen fills with a mix of smiling children, crops and grain pouring out of machines. Lucas, the Rioverde, is all money, code growth and seas of corn and soybeans as far as the eye can see.

[Felipe Sabrina / Intercept Brazil Team]

The first time I visited, it shocked me to see massive crops right next to people's homes. But the more I learned about Lucas, the more it made sense. The town is a fiction designed and built by the government to impose development on this region. Lucas was entirely created to serve agriculture and its owners. The wide avenues are lined with silos, agricultural machinery stores, supply stores, credit banks and real estate agencies. Trucks over 20 meters long, loaded with soybeans or corn have plenty of space to drive around or park on the curb. Walking in Lucas, on the other hand, is a challenge because of the distances between the long avenues, the heat and the lack of trees to provide shade. The city is obsessed with imperial palm trees. There are hundreds of them in the town center and on the sides of the roads, with nothing but monoculture crops and imported palm trees. There is no vegetation in the area to insulate it from extreme temperature changes. Lucas can go from freezing cold to unbelievably hot from one moment to the next. It was weird for me, but the people I spoke with here didn't seem to mind. The image of abundant harvests has drawn people from all over the country to Lucas.

[Amy Westervelt]

My husband was unemployed for two years. Then we saw Reports about the city, which is a very good place to live, to raise children, even in terms of violence. So we packed our bags. Isabela is from Minas Terreis, a Brazilian state southeast of Lucas. But since 2021, she's been living here with her husband and children. She sells acai bowls in front of the parking lot of a multinational grain company. Acai is a fruit typical of the Amazon. Isabella buys it from suppliers and sells it to truck drivers who load and unload grain here. She passes smuggler small bowls of acai cream through the fence, and the truckers pass back cash. Isabella said Lucas is great, not least because when she needs to take her kids to a public hospital, she never waits more than an hour to be seen. Me in the city, I don't think anyone can complain about health care, she says. The Lucas do Rioverde hospital, San Lucas in particular, is especially nice. It's run today by a partnership between the city and agribusiness entrepreneurs. Now they've opened a really nice ward at you. The whole hostel has been renovated.

[Bruce Rastetter / Corey Melby / Paolo Franz (various interviewees)]

You do.

[Amy Westervelt]

In fact, the new maternity ward at the SAS hospital has a promotional video too. And a few seconds into it, listeners might recognize a not so Brazilian sounding name. Bruce Rastetter, the ethanol kingpin of Iowa. He wields a lot of power there, but outside the state, he's not exactly a household name. Now, suddenly, a new wing in the hospital in this Brazilian farm town was being named after this guy. How did that happen?

[Felipe Sabrina / Intercept Brazil Team]

The hospital canceled my tour just before I arrived. So our producer, Marce Riverdoz, and I just showed up to see what we could see. We talked to a hospital worker in the hall.

[Amy Westervelt]

It's a little hard to hear there because Felipe and Marcia were trying to tape with their phone. And of course, she's speaking in Portuguese, too. But when they asked her about the name of the ward, the Bruce Rastatter wing, she said it was named after Bruce, a doctor from Ohio. We're still not sure where she got that idea, but funding big public projects, especially around hospitals and healthcare, is really common in Brazil. You just heard how, when telling Felipe about what she likes about Lucas, Isabella mentioned healthcare. People think of hospitals as an example of how nice a city is or how well it's working. So if Lucas has a good hospital, no one can say that the politicians or the businessmen running things here are bad. That goes double for anything that's focused on women and children. So a maternity ward checks a lot of boxes. And then we found out that the hospital is run by a Foundation led by one of Rastetter's Brazilian business partners, Marino Franz. Marino's brother, Paolo, was the one that proposed that giant pig statue that looks out over Lucas. And to understand how Rastatter, the American farmer, ended up with a Brazilian rural maternity ward named after him, we had to figure out how the Franz Brothers fit into it and what brought Bruce to Brazil in the first place. That's coming up after the break.

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[Amy Westervelt]

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[Amy Westervelt]

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[Amy Westervelt]

Lucas Turioverde is in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso, a state that is almost exactly half agriculture and half Amazon rainforest. It used to be even more Amazon. For decades, the state was considered the frontier in Brazil. The forests were preserved and it was home to even more indigenous people than it is today. But in the 1960s and 1970s, Brazil's military government deployed a new strategy. It was called the National Integration Plan. The idea was to eliminate indigenous communities that were seen as anti development and integrate the north and Midwest of Brazil into the national economy. This propaganda film from the 70s celebrates the revolution reaching the jungle, toppling trees in favor of roads. The goal was to develop the Amazon by building infrastructure, infrastructure in the wilderness, displacing indigenous residents and encouraging people from outside the region to move there. To be pioneers and go to this frontier and tame it. The main farm towns in Mato Grosso today were deliberate colonization projects, many of them built and funded by the Brazilian government. The government offered people plots of land, housing and sometimes even credit to move there. They even funded research to figure out how crops like soybeans and cotton could be grown in the tropical climate there. That's what brought the Franz Brothers there decades ago. And according to Paolo, it's the Franz Brothers who brought Bruce to the area. In Paolo's telling, it all happened because of an internship he did in Iowa and an important contact he made there. Here he is talking about it on a Brazilian podcast.

[Bruce Rastetter / Corey Melby / Paolo Franz (various interviewees)]

Terry Branstad.

[Amy Westervelt]

Terry Branstad, the governor of Iowa at the time and eventually US Ambassador to China during Trump's first presidency. Powell says they all went to soccer games together a lot. Powell says it was Branstad who introduced him to Bruce Rastetter.

[iHeartRadio Advertiser]

Bruce is the CEO of the company, the founder. He has a huge passion for pigs and has been involved with pigs his whole life. He was a pig farmer until he started getting into ethanol, which is a very recent thing. I don't know whether, just to clarify, Americans produce more ethanol from corn than we do from sugar cane. There, the philosophy, the culture, is producing ethanol from corn. So as president, I met with this Terry Branstad, who is the governor of Iowa. We met, and he wanted to buy some land here in Brazil.

[Amy Westervelt]

Bruce doesn't mention any of this when he's asked about how he wound up in Brazil. Here's how he talked about it on a farming podcast a couple of years ago.

[Bruce Rastetter / Corey Melby / Paolo Franz (various interviewees)]

So when we sold Hawkeye to Koch

[Amy Westervelt]

Industries, that was one of his ethanol

[Bruce Rastetter / Corey Melby / Paolo Franz (various interviewees)]

companies, that freed me up for the first time to do other things outside of being responsible for a larger company and started traveling to Brazil.

[Amy Westervelt]

This is how Bruce talks about it in other interviews, too. He was interested in Brazil because it's the main agricultural competitor to the US or because other US companies had done well there, etc. Etc. It was when we were trying to verify Bruce and Paolo's differing versions of this story that our Brazil editor, Alice d', Souza, found a guy with yet another version.

[Bruce Rastetter / Corey Melby / Paolo Franz (various interviewees)]

Is this pro ethanol? Are you three huggers? Are you looking at this from a negative standpoint, or are you looking at it from a neutral standpoint? I don't mind being neutral. I can be critical of this, too.

[Felipe Sabrina / Intercept Brazil Team]

Yeah.

[Bruce Rastetter / Corey Melby / Paolo Franz (various interviewees)]

But because clients of mine have invested in upwards of a billion dollars now in my Pedro. So I don't want to fuck this up.

[Amy Westervelt]

That's Corey Melby, an agriculture consultant in Brazil.

[Bruce Rastetter / Corey Melby / Paolo Franz (various interviewees)]

I came from northwest Minnesota, developing land. So, of course, when in the early 2000s, when Mato Grosso and all of this soybean expansion was taking place, I was gonna be the lam guy for a group from some of the first guys I went down with. You're gonna be here, Cory. Pick up the language, pick up the contacts. You could be the real estate guy. So that's where I started, was from

[Amy Westervelt]

that perspective, full disclosure. We paid Corey Melody to be a fixer for us on the ground in Mato Grosso. The idea was that he would take us around and Ideally, arrange a meeting with the Brothers Franz at their farm. None of that ended up panning out, but he did talk to Felipe and I and he told us a lot about how Bruce started out in Brazil. Brazil. He also added me to his newsletter list, which is a wealth of ag knowledge about Brazil. Although it comes out so many times a week, I still have about 500 unread emails in a folder marked Corey.

[Bruce Rastetter / Corey Melby / Paolo Franz (various interviewees)]

So I've been on every farm in my progress. So I wrote the. The boom times and the bus and the boom times and the bus again with all my friends. So I, you know, I have that 25 year arc of experience now of the good, bad and ugly of Marco Grosso. And believe me, there's plenty of all of it.

[Amy Westervelt]

He knows a lot about Bruce and the Franz Brothers because he did for Bruce what he's done for the past 25 years for other Americans looking to get into the ag business in Monto Grosso. He toured them around looking for land.

[Bruce Rastetter / Corey Melby / Paolo Franz (various interviewees)]

Back in 2011, I was visiting and he was a young, dynamic guy and he would say, cory, we're looking to develop a, a corn oil mill. Processing and investors are partnering that corn oil. So I was writing about this BS in my newsletters at the time and also visiting in Lucas de Hilver day at the elevators at the time, talking to climbers. Oh, corn ethanol, corn ethanol. We gotta get corn ethanol here or we're going to bury ourselves.

[Amy Westervelt]

Because of his newsletter and his ties to various American ag folks, Corey has kind of become known as the guy to call if you're an American who wants to get a sense of Mato Grosso. So when people started talking about corn ethanol there, it was only a matter of time before he got a call from you know who.

[Bruce Rastetter / Corey Melby / Paolo Franz (various interviewees)]

Summit from Iowa, which I'm sure you are very familiar with. Bruce Rashstetter and Eric and then the whole club. I get a call from Bruce's letter email. Hey, would like a tour of Marco Grosso. We're going to be down there for another reason. Could, could we do something a la carte with you, Cory?

[Amy Westervelt]

They didn't want to take one of Corey's prepackaged ag tours.

[Bruce Rastetter / Corey Melby / Paolo Franz (various interviewees)]

Okay, so this is 2011. We do a little quick power tour, they go home. I figured just another tour. We were looking at land. We would love to get going on some land deals.

[Amy Westervelt]

Corey carried on thinking nothing of it, but six months or so later he got a call from some friends in Malto Grosso.

[Bruce Rastetter / Corey Melby / Paolo Franz (various interviewees)]

My good friend the Franzes, you know, they were, Cory, we want to get an ethanol mill going out here. But we need help. We need Americans, we need capital, et cetera, et cetera. So I was telling Bruce and the guys at the time, you know, I've got friends.

[Amy Westervelt]

According to Corey at the time, Bruce and the guys weren't quite ready to get into the ethanol business in Brazil. They were just looking for some farmland. Then they came back for another trip, and as Corey tells it, this is when they met the Franzes.

[Bruce Rastetter / Corey Melby / Paolo Franz (various interviewees)]

All of a sudden, you know, Brazilians being Brazilians, we've got a farm for sale.

[Amy Westervelt]

Corey helped broker the deal between Bruce and the Franzes, and it kept them all talking.

[Bruce Rastetter / Corey Melby / Paolo Franz (various interviewees)]

Three years to close on this damn farm. But that farm purchase then opened the door with trust and capital. Hey, let's. Let's build an ethanol mill in Lucas. Together.

[Amy Westervelt]

The Franz brothers had hit the big time. They were getting into business with the ethanol kingpin of Iowa. It was a whole new level, or as Corey calls it, cycle three.

[Bruce Rastetter / Corey Melby / Paolo Franz (various interviewees)]

Cycle one is deforestation in cattle. Cycle two is. So cycle 2.5 is soy corn. Basically, you know, the combination cycle three now gets to be what we would say, industrial or added value. No different than Iowa.

[Amy Westervelt]

For the Franz Brothers. Bruce was a white whale. At a time of booming Brazilian industrial agriculture. He happened to have some free time on his hands, and now this international king of corn had picked them. What luck. But that story misses one important detail. At the time he was doing land tours in Brazil, Bruce Rastatter was having a really bad time back home in Iowa. Since 2012, since that big land grab attempt in Africa, he has become a dirty word in Iowa. It's just that's what he does is like his business model, you know, and whether it was in Iowa with, you know, how he was treating Iowa farmers, or now it's globally. Yeah, he just keeps pushing his business advancement. Right. It's all about his corporate profits. Friends of friends have said that he's kind of over Iowa and more interested in Brazil, which, I mean, I suppose if I was in his shoes, if I had the choice of, you know, being a place where everybody hated me in a place where people fond over me, I'd probably go to people fond over me. That's our story next time. We reached out to Bruce Rastetter, Harold Ham, the FR Brothers, Miguel Vas Ribeiro, and all summit companies and Brazilian government agencies mentioned in this season for comment and have incorporated any responses we received throughout the season.

[Felipe Sabrina / Intercept Brazil Team]

Carbon Cowboys Cowboys of the Cerrado is a collaboration between Drilled and the Intercept Brazil.

[Amy Westervelt]

The show was reported and written by Felipe, Sabrina and me, Amy Westervelt.

[Felipe Sabrina / Intercept Brazil Team]

Our editors are Audrey Quinn in the US and Alice de Souza in Brazil.

[Amy Westervelt]

Our senior producer and Sound designer is Martin Zaltz Ostwyk. Audio production and sound design in Brazil by Marcia Heverdosa and Felipe Municipal.

[Felipe Sabrina / Intercept Brazil Team]

Our Impact producer is Lindsey Crowder. Theme song and original music by Eric Terrena.

[Amy Westervelt]

Additional music by Martin Zaltz Ostwick. Our engineer is Peter Duff.

[Felipe Sabrina / Intercept Brazil Team]

Artwork for Drilled is by Matt Fleming.

[Amy Westervelt]

US Fact checking from Naomi Barr.

[Felipe Sabrina / Intercept Brazil Team]

Brazil fact checking by Studio Frontera.

[Amy Westervelt]

Our First Amendment attorney is James Wheaton with the First Amendment Project. We are also proud members of Reporter Ship. Big thanks also to Andrew Fishman, President of the Intercept Brazil.

[Felipe Sabrina / Intercept Brazil Team]

Drilled is distributed by Pushkin Industries.

[Amy Westervelt]

Huge thanks to the team there including Greta Cohen, Eric Sandler, Grace Ross, Morgan Ratner, Owen Miller, Kira Posey, Jordan McMillan, Brian Schrebernek and Jake Flanagan. To hear the Portuguese version of this series, head over to the Interceptor Brazil's site or search for the Intercept Brazil's podcast feed. Wherever you listen to podcasts.

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[Amy Westervelt]

Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile with a message for everyone Paying Big Wireless way too much. Please, for the love of everything good in this world, stop with Mint. You can get premium wireless for just $15 a month. Of course, if you enjoy overpaying, no judgments.

[Bruce Rastetter / Corey Melby / Paolo Franz (various interviewees)]

But that's weird.

[Amy Westervelt]

Okay, one judgment anyway, give it a [e-mail] Switch upfront payment of $45 for three month plan equivalent to $15 per month required intro rate first three months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra. See full [e-mail] this episode is brought

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[Amy Westervelt]

is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.