He founded Heartland Pork Enterprises, and started and sold 80% of Hawkeye Energy Holdings, one of the largest US ethanol producers.
[2] In 1994, three years after founding his first company, Rastetter consolidated his feed management, construction, and swine projects into Heartland Pork Enterprises.
[6] State legislators have said that Rastetter donated to Governor Kim Reynolds’ campaigns and that "she will not act on [land owner concerns] until the pipeline is through.
[8] Rastetter is a well-known megadonor to the Republican party, having donated more than $1.5 million to state and federal political campaigns from 2003 to 2015 alone and has been called an "Iowa kingmaker".
[10] Mike Huckabee, Chris Christie, Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Rick Santorum, Scott Walker, and Jeb Bush attended the event, located within the Iowa State Fairgrounds.
[12] As of 2017, he served on governing and advisory boards of a variety of organizations, including Cultivation Corridor, AltEnergy LLC, Rural American Fund, American Agriculture and Energy Council, Iowa Renewable Fuels Association, and the college of agriculture at Iowa State University.
[13] In January 2017, shortly before the White House transition, Rastetter voiced his opposition to pending mega-mergers in the agriculture industry, such as those concerning Bayer, Monsanto, Dow Chemical, ChemChina, and Syngenta.