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Former President Suggests Ethanol Connection to Food Riots

Speaking at USDA's annual Outlook Forum, Former President Bill Clinton warned that farmers shouldn't use too much corn for ethanol.  We must avoid food riots.  In response, the Renewable Fuels Association points out that grain demand from American ethanol production represents just 3% of the world's grain supply. 

According to RFA, American farmers and ethanol producers are cognizant of developing nations, producing more grain and livestock feed for export than in previous generations. Ethanol production returns one-third of every bushel to the feed markets, resulting in the production of more than 32 million metric tons of feed last year alone.

The driver behind rising food prices has been and remains oil.  Rising oil prices have made everything we buy from food to clothes to fuel more expensive. RFA says that President Clinton is right that ethanol is a key to American energy security and we would welcome his support in advocating for the continued advancement and evolution of this industry to include a wide variety of feedstocks and technologies.

National Corn Growers Association President Bart Schott says every year, America's farmers produce more than enough corn to meet all the needs of the expanding markets of feed, fuel and food both in the United States and across the world and the ethanol industry is not an exception.  The U.S. ethanol industry uses only 3% of the increasing global grain supply and is expected to return 1.2 billion bushels of corn livestock feed in the form of dried distillers grains and corn gluten feed this year alone. 

"New reports show that the rising cost of oil, not ethanol production, is a major cause of increased food prices," Schott said. "With the continuing unrest in the Middle East and Northern Africa, it is imperative that we continue to support a home-grown fuel industry that helps keep our country safe and creates jobs.  The American farmer is very aware of the world's rising demand for corn, and we will continue to meet those needs."

Growth Energy says President Clinton's concerns are well-intentioned, but we would point him toward recent studies like "Land Availability for Biofuel Production," published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology in January. This peer-reviewed study demonstrated that biofuel crops grown on already-available farmland could produce up to half of the world's current fuel consumption without negatively affecting food crops.

According to Growth Energy, we have a surplus of food in this country. If there are hungry people in the world, it's not because of production. In fact, overproduction in the United States has helped put farmers in poorer nations out of business as cheap American grain floods their markets. Ethanol consumes that surplus grain, preventing it from being dumped overseas, and helps put farmers in other nations back into business.

There are over a billion acres of previously-tilled farmland in poor nations that can be brought back into production as ethanol makes farming this land cost-effective. Growth Energy believes ethanol does not create food shortages, but instead gives these nations a way to get their own sovereign farming economies back on their feet so they can feed themselves.