November 21, 2011
Let’s Talk Turkey
At one point or another this year, the livestock and poultry industries have voiced their dislike for ethanol because they claim – erroneously—that ethanol causes rising food costs.
Unfortunately, their efforts to color America’s opinion about the ethanol industry have reverberated beyond the Big Meat sphere and into the international advocacy world.
A representative from Action Aid recently penned a column in the Huffington Post in which she unfortunately relied on the same skewed talking points to wrongly blame ethanol for the rising cost of Thanksgiving Day turkeys. Action Aid repeats myths that distort the truth and attempt to hide the fact that our nation’s biofuels actually produce animal feed, and actually strengthen our economic and national security.
A careful analysis of the facts will prove to Action Aid, and anyone else, that these claims are just a whole lot of stuffing.
According to New York Times’ Wealth Matters columnist Paul Sullivan, “It turns out that turkey pricing is not much tied to commodities prices.”
What’s really gobbling up your paycheck this holiday season is speculation in the commodities market , trade barriers with China and energy prices – which are all driving oil and food prices to historic highs.
What is also not taken into account is that more than one third of every bushel of corn is returned to the feed market in the form of distillers grains (DDGs) a lower starch, higher protein based feed that is less expensive and more nutritionally valuable than corn feed.
So, using math 101, not only can you not blame ethanol for causing higher feed prices, but those who use more DDGs actually save money on feed. This is especially true for turkey producers for whom “turkey feed is about 70 percent the cost of production.”
Lastly, what must be considered is that a 2011 study from the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development at Iowa State University concludes that “ethanol subsidies have not been the major driver of higher commodity prices.”
As a reminder, the ethanol industry has already volunteered to forfeit the blender’s tax credit and will continue to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, create jobs and strengthen our economy even after its expiration.
We support the goals of Action Aid to raise people out of poverty – which is something that U.S. biofuels can do by creating jobs in hard-hit rural communities, and breaking OPEC’s control over our economy. We just wish they hadn’t turned to Big Meat’s Big Lies to make a critical point about hunger.
It’s important to keep in mind that American farmers have a history of meeting challenges and are the most productive in the world, which is why we continue to see a surplus of grain in this country even as ethanol production grows. But, even when ethanol wasn’t a viable alternative to gasoline, there were still billions of hungry people in the world. So why is ethanol the poster child for higher prices and world hunger? Perhaps we should be looking at the distribution and greed by corporate grocery- and meat - manufacturers who continue to reap record profits while simultaneously pointing the finger at ethanol for higher costs.
Taking all the facts into account, one can clearly see that the ethanol industry is working to feed the world and fuel America in ways that achieve energy independence, improve economic well-being and create a healthier environment for everyone worldwide.
