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Ag groups call for hearings on food price increases

Several ag groups are calling for Congressional hearings on food price increases.

The request for hearings came during a news conference Thursday todiscuss the recent report from the Congressional Budget Office regarding ethanol’s impact on food prices. The CBO reported that higher corn prices, resulting from expanded production of ethanol, accounted for only 10 to 15 percent of the overall increase in food prices last year.

Tom Buis, CEO of Growth Energy, urges Congress to investigate what’s really behind the food price increases. “There were several hearings last year that actually were designed, I think, to blame us for higher food prices,” Buis says, “and I would still like to seeCongress—those same committees—hold hearings again and get to the bottom of it.”

Roger Johnson, the new president of the National Farmers Union, agrees. “In fact we’d love to see the same witnesses that blamed farmers for these higher food prices and ask them why,in the face of commodity prices that have fallen by more than half in many cases, why food prices haven’t gone down along with them, instead of having gone up,” says Johnson.

American Farm Bureau president Bob Stallman also favors Congressional hearings. He says it’sdisingenuous to blame higher food prices on farmers.

“With so many fingers in the till between the farmer and consumer, there are numerous factors that are responsible for higher food prices,” Stallman says, “including labor expenses, energy costs, financialspeculation, increased demand, the weak U.S. dollar—and probably others.”

For his part, National Corn Growers Association CEO Rick Tolman wants an apology from the Grocery Manufacturers Association. “I think that grocery manufacturers and others owe farmers a hugeapology for the damage they’ve done to the reputation among consumers,” Tolman says.

The grocery manufacturer’s campaign against ethanol, Tolman says, has been built on spin and misrepresentation of the facts.