Agricultural News
American Coalition for Ethanol Urges House Ag Subcommittee to Consider All Factors
Wed, 14 Sep 2011 14:41:07 CDT
The American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) urged the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry to consider all factors responsible for increasing feed prices when it holds a hearing on that matter today.
The hearing will focus on the availability of livestock feed and its effect on the livestock and poultry industries. Many of the groups slated to testify have repeatedly and incorrectly blamed higher food and grain related prices on the increased use and production of ethanol.
ACE Executive Vice President Brian Jennings said he hopes the hearing will actually examine all of the causes of higher feed prices rather than becoming "another overly-simplistic, thinly-veiled attack on the ethanol industry."
"The preliminary witness list for this hearing is a who's who of groups that think they are entitled to cheap corn forever and now aren't happy with corn prices. But that doesn't change the fact that corn ethanol is not the primary or even a significant source of increased feed and food prices. In fact, corn ethanol production results in feed and food production of distiller's grain. Unless this hearing examines all the factors contributing to food and feed prices, it can't be considered a serious investigation of the issue."
"The US ethanol industry will produce 1.7 billion bushels of high quality animal feed this year - almost 4.5 million tons of distiller's grains - at a cost that is currently only 75 to 80% of the cost of corn," said Jennings. "Forward-thinking livestock producers have figured out that feed produced at ethanol plants can economically displace more than its weight in corn, actually reducing their feed costs."
ACE has several fact sheets over the ethanol debate on their website. Click here to see all of their fact sheets.
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