EWG: US Biofuels Policy Needs Rethinking After Current Weather

Feedstuffs, Jacqui Fatka
Published June 16, 2008

A new report from the Environmental Working Group stated that although ethanol policies are not the only reason behind higher food prices, it is a factor that can be controlled. Weather as well as global food and fuel demand cannot be controlled. "Our ethanol policy requires perfect weather, and not surprisingly, we aren't getting it," said EWG Senior Agriculture Analyst Michelle Perez. The report is a conclusion of EWG analysts after interviews with top agriculture economists and climatologists. Keith Collins, the former top economist at USDA for 15 years, during an EWG-sponsored call with reporters late last month, said, "We did not anticipate these soaring prices. No one forecasted $5.50 to $6.30 per bushel corn prices. We were in the $3.70 per bushel range." Corn prices closed at $7.91 per bushel on Friday the 13th of June, 2008 In Iowa, 1.13 million acres of corn, nearly ten percent of the state's total, already have been lost, and 4 million more are currently underwater. Across the Midwest millions more acres are likely to suffer significant yield loss because fields have been too wet to plant or are too wet to apply fertilizer or control weeds. Corn futures surged toward $8 per bushel in Chicago in response to what many are calling the worst flooding since 1993, when the corn crop was cut by 24 percent. EWG'S complete analysis, Biofuels and Bad Weather: America's Food-Fuel Gamble, can be found at the following link. www.ewg.org/report/biofuelsandbadweather