Duly Noted and Quoted

Back in August, when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency upheld the renewable fuels standard, ethanol critics were disappointed. Scott Faber, the Grocery Manufacturers Association, was quoted saying that the Bush Administration lost a chance “to immediately reduce food prices and, more importantly, to avoid the certainty of much higher food prices in 2009.”

How immediate would that reduction in food prices have been? Faber never said, and now we know why. As much as corn prices have decreased since reaching a peak in August, there seems to be no intention to lower prices. Here’s another quote from Faber, from an Oct. 17 Wall Street Journal story that looks into how food prices are remaining high, despite much lower prices for commodities suich as corn, soybeans and wheat: “The impact of [higher priced] corn is continuing to work its way through the value chain and will continue to be reflected in higher grocery prices for some period.”

If anything gets reduced, it’s the size of food packages in grocery stores, as noted in a post below.