Chuck Grassley: “for the past few weeks, I have been leading an effort to dispel the myths surrounding the impact of biofuels policies on…”

“for the past few weeks, I have been leading an effort to dispel the myths surrounding the impact of biofuels policies on our food prices. You may remember that back on May 15, I came to the Senate floor to announce to my colleagues that the campaign to smear ethanol is a well-funded and seemingly well-coordinated campaign. It is being led by none other than the Grocery Manufacturers Association. In the weeks since that floor statement, I have been using every opportunity I can to beat back this smear campaign and inject the facts into the debate. Biofuels are being scapegoated for rising wheat prices, even though the 2007 crop was the largest planted in 4 years. Biofuels are being blamed for the increased price of products such as rice and bananas, which have no correlation to corn production or our biofuels policies. According to economists across the administration, biofuels have caused a tiny fraction of the increase in global and domestic food prices. They are also responsible for only a small portion of even the increase in the price of corn. The fact is, the increased cost of oil is the biggest driver behind the increased price of food. In other words, energy and how energy fits into the food chain and the dramatic increase in the price of oil to $130, $140 a barrel is the biggest driver in the increased price of food. But we also have drought in wheat-producing countries, such as Australia last year, adding to this increase.”