Corn ethanol mandate putting strain on corn resources
By: Joe Makoto
-Staff Writer-
While we wait for the official harvest yields to see the full effects of this year’s drought on Midwest food crops, the USDA estimates and anecdotal reports from area farms are not encouraging. Corn, wheat and soy prices have all rocketed in recent months, putting particular pressure on livestock producers.
The biggest single relief valve the United States has is to repeal the corn ethanol mandate, a Federal regulation designed to increasingly replace gasoline with domestically produced biofuels. This mandate now consumes 40 percent of the US corn crop; an unacceptable percentage of a now scarce crop. The original mandate was put into place five years ago when corn crops and water were abundant.
We are now risking starvation in order to fuel our cars. The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization’s (FAO) head, Jose Graziano da Silva said, “FAO has been raising its voice against using food to produce bio energy.” He is joining a growing chorus favoring repeal.
The National Pork Producers Council and National Cattlemen’s Beef Association have called on the Environmental Protection Agency to limit the corn ethanol mandate. Several governors have made the same call, notably from states where corn is not a major commodity crop product.
So, who is against repeal? The main group is the recently created group, Fuels America, which encompasses everyone from corn growers to ethanol producers. The name is strange since corn ethanol only supplied 9.5 percent of liquid fuels in 2010. What fuels America is oil, not corn ethanol.
The United States is now in a position to either allow prices to rise in order to satisfy a small but important domestic constituency, or feed the world through judiciously retracting the mandate. The Obama administration should act to feed people, not satiate an interest group.
Contact Congressman Todd Akin at 314-590-0029 or Russ Carnahan at 314-962-1523 with your concerns or suggestions.
