GoodFuels

Farmers fight back

In a press conference today, farmers cited rising oil prices as the major cause of increased food prices around the world.  In addition, droughts, hedge fund commodity speculators and growing demand for grain were blamed for having a larger impact on food prices than ethanol.

Ric Tolman, CEO of the the National Corn Growers Association

We are putting more corn in the food supply than we’ve ever done before and also adding 1.3 billion bushels for ethanol export.

[In], 1967 we had a national average yield of 80 bushels to the acre.  1977, ten years later it was 91.  1987, ten years later, 120.  1997, 127.  Last year, 151 bushels to the acre.

Corn flakes – it takes ten ounces of corn to produce a box of corn flakes that sells for over three dollars.  There’s 3.3 cents in that box of corn flakes of corn.  When [cost of a bushel of corn] goes up to four dollars , it’s seven-tenths of a cent up; it goes to four cents worth of corn [in that box of corn flakes].

Bob Dinneen, President and CEO of the Renewable Fuels Association

…the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City calculated that a ten percent rise in energy prices results in a 5.2 percent rise in the price of food.  I should note that just since the beginning of this year oil prices are up more than 30 percent.

Last June, economist John Urbanchuck calculated that rising oil prices have twice the impact on food prices as a similar increase in the price of corn.  Since then, economists have calculated that rising corn prices were responsible for just four percent of the rise in food prices.

Tom Buis, President of the National Farmer’s Union

You do the math with $4.50 a gallon diesel fuel trucking these products around the country and you’ll find out just where the culprit is.

Former Secretary of Agriculture John Block:

Singling out biofuels like ethanol for all or even the majority of the blame misses the boat.

I dare say we would not even be standing up here now if the price of oil was $20 a barrel, but it’s not.  It’s 120 and it’s likely to stay up in that range or come down some or go up.  I don’t know.  But it’s going to stay high and it puts us into a position we had not been in before and we’re trying to find the future from this point of view.

But it’s not too long off, two, three, four, five years we’ll be using cellulosic material to make bio-fuels.  All of this is home grown.  It makes jobs for us right here in the United States and it’s a clean fuel.  Those are good, positive things

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