Vilsack: Food Price Hike More than Ethanol

Agriculture, Federal Agency, International, Policy, Sustainability

May 31, 2011

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by Jerry Hagstrom (AgWeek) Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told a gathering of international agricultural development activists recently that U.S. biofuels should not blamed for most of the increases in food prices in recent years. “With respect to food prices, corn-based ethanol does not deserve the scapegoat reputation that folks often attempt to assign it,” Vilsack told a May 24 conference sponsored by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. “During the great run-up in food and commodity prices in 2007 and 2008, biofuel production played only a minor role — accounting for about 10 percent of the total increase in global prices.”
…The Chicago Council issued a report recently that said Congress and the Obama administration should consider ending government support for
biofuels, and sponsored a conference that featured many speakers who have urged Congress and the administration to increase funding for global food security programs and cut back on U.S. farm subsidies.
“The U.S., like many countries, looks to biofuels as one tool in our efforts to confront the triple challenges of assuring food security, adequate energy supplies and mitigation of the impacts of climate change But — particularly in the international community — a number of myths pervade discussions of our biofuels policy,” Vilsack said, according to his prepared remarks.
The secretary also noted that about a third of the grains that go into ethanol production come out as dried distiller’s grains that are used to feed livestock. The concern that U.S. biofuels production is causing changes to international land use “has also recently been shown false,” Vilsack said, citing a study released by Michigan State University showing that U.S. biofuel production through 2007 “probably has not induced any indirect land use change.” READ MORE and MORE (MSNBC) and MORE (BBC News) and MORE (Renewable Fuels Association) and MORE (DomesticFuel.com) Oxfam Report

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