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NPPC: Ethanol industry should share more risk

Pork producers—still stinging from the tight corn supply situation they faced in 2008—would like some assurances that it won’t happen exactly that way again. 

“You know, is an SUV going to go without ethanol—or is the grocery cart going to go without meat, milk, dairy.” 

That’s National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) board member Randy Spronk of Edgerton, Minnesota, who says the ethanol industry should share more of the risk with livestock producers.  He says it is bad policy to force livestock producers to bear almost the entire risk of rationing if there is a short corn crop. 

“Because there is a mandate to utilize on the ethanol side—when it becomes a short crop and there’s a mandate on that side—all the burden would fall on the livestock sector when it comes to rationing,” says Spronk. “We’re just raising our hand and saying ‘is that correct’, and can we do something about that—and let’s have the discussion here, now, upfront—before it happens.” 

As corn supplies tightened and prices skyrocketed in 2008, there were calls for EPA to suspend the RFS ethanol mandate.  NPPC would like to see more of a plan in place to deal with a corn shortage. 

“The volatility is what really is not beneficial to all end users of corn,” Spronk says, “and so that maybe having just a single switch, or single trigger, is too large, too late—so maybe more of a stair-stepped approach would be preferential.” 

As it is now, Spronk says the pork industry remains extremely vulnerable to a repeat of 2008.

AUDIO: Randy Spronk (8 min MP3)