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NCGA – food price reports “an outrage”

National Corn Growers President Bart Schott says “it’s an outrage” to see claims repeated from 2008 about a connection with food prices and the demand for ethanol. Schott tells AgriMarketing.com the recent news stories about current higher food prices are making incorrect assumptions – based on claims by ethanol opponents.

Schott says NCGA growers are producing more corn and meeting all needs while being affected by the “same negative factors on their farms” – including higher energy costs that are driving up food prices worldwide. Schott says market speculation is another factor.

Schott sites the Congressional Budget Office report in 2009 that found higher energy costs were a major factor in the 2007/2008 spike in food prices that had very little to do with “the use of ethanol as a motor fuel.”