An Iowa soybean-processing plant has ambitious plans to grow. John Campbell is a vice-president at A-G-P of Omaha, which does about two-Billion dollars a year in sales. The main business is soybean processing and refining the vegetable oil, and he says it’s the largest soybean processing facility in Iowa and the largest processed-soybean producer in the country. The plant, built in 1996 was the first bio-diesel facility in the country. It’s a value-added co-op, and Campbell says at that time they felt there was so much potential in the industry it would be a good idea to take the leap.” Since then, he thinks it’s produced more biodiesel than any other plant in the U.S. Campbell says managers were waiting on some federal legislation that was pending in Washington, and made the final decision to expand after passage of a bill that gives a partial exemption from diesel fuel tax to blends that include bio-diesel. The plant’s going to be expanded by 60-percent, so it can produce 12-Million gallons a year at the Sergeant Bluff facility. He says most new jobs created by the expansion will be in construction, building the bigger facility. Also, he says processing more soybeans at the plans is likely to push up the price of the crop. Campbell says when you increase the price of soybeans you increase the value to farmers, whose money turns over in the economy at least 7 times — and that has “an enormous job-creating impact.”