Ugly Baby Has Bright Future
Posted: August 15, 2008
When National Corn Growers Association CEO Rick Tolman was introduced at the 21st American Coalition for Ethanol Conference and Trade Show, he was called “one of the most effective spokespeople” for the ethanol industry, and he certainly lived up to that introduction.
He started out by noting that the corn growers and ethanol producers in the audience were indeed and “powerful and influential group.”
“You’re the group that’s the cause of the Amazon rain forest deforestation, the obesity epidemic and world starvation and you stand accused of crimes against humanity. You’re the reason for the increase in dead zone of the Gulf, the cause of the Midwest flooding this spring, the reason that a tub of popcorn costs $5, that Britney had a meltdown and that Brett Favre came out of retirement and became a Jet, and you’re the cause of John Edward’s infidelity.”
Tolman talked about the press ethanol has been getting lately and focused in on T. Boone Pickens’ comment that corn ethanol was “the ugly baby of renewable energy.”
“Most babies are ugly when they are born,” Tolman said. “People say that the newborn baby looks a lot like Winston Churchill or, heaven forbid, T. Boone Pickens.”
Tolman says there are many comparisons that can be drawn between babies and the ethanol industry – they go through lots of trauma and stress being born, they need help to survive and grow, and they have a great deal of potential.
“Corn ethanol may be the ugly baby, that’s kind of a badge of honor,” he said. “It is the ugly baby with a very bright future.”
He concluded with pictures of his own grandbabies and said if anyone wants to call them ugly, “I know their grandmother, I wouldn’t do that.”