Corn Commentary

Usual Suspects, Usual Wrongheaded Spin

The Grocery Manufacturers Association and its anti-ethanol cadre has developed yet another attack Web site, with the usual misinformation about corn and ethanol production. Just consider these statements from their home page:

Myth: “Producing more corn ethanol could threaten air quality in many communities, destroy millions of acres of forests around the world, and increase emissions of greenhouse gases. In particular, plowing up forests to grow more corn could increase farmland runoff, expanding low-oxygen dead zones that hurt commercial fishermen.”

Fact: We don’t need to destroy forests around the world because we’re growing more corn per acre. That’s a big part of the push for higher ethanol blends in the first place — we have more corn for all needs, not less. Check out NCGA’s strategic plan for information on expanding corn production without absorbing more acres.

Myth: “Diluting gasoline with more corn ethanol could divert more than half of America’s corn crop from food and feed to fuel, increasing the cost of feeding livestock and poultry and the cost of making food. Higher food prices disproportionately impact low-income Americans.”

Fact: According to our strategic plan, by the year 2020, we expect to be able to produce 17 billion bushels of corn, of which only 4.75 billion will be used for ethanol. That will only be 25 percent of the total corn supply (18.8 billion bushels) that year.

Myth: “Thousands of jobs and farms were lost when feed prices more than doubled in 2008. Adding more corn ethanol to our gasoline will increase feed prices again.”

Fact: There is general agreement among those who know these things that ethanol demand had little to do with the 2008 increase in the price of corn. Corn now costs less than in 2007, but more corn is going into ethanol production. Many other factors conspired to run up the cost of corn.