Home AgriTalk Affiliates Contact AgriTalk Weather BottomLine Reports The Food Insider
 

Who's Who

Listen Live

OverTime

AgriTalk Affiliates

Contact AgriTalk

AgriTalk Links

Search Past Show Topics

AgriTalk Photos

Podcast

Video Archive




OverTime with Mike Adams

OVERTIME - MAY 5, 2008
As I watched a Congressional hearing on food prices last week, it was hard not to yell at the television. Despite the efforts of USDA chief economist Joe Glauber and National Farmers Union President Tom Buis, who both did a good job of explaining the situation, some members of the committee still didn't seem to get it...ETHANOL PRODUCTION PLAYS A SMALL ROLE IN FOOD PRICE INCREASES! Then again, many of these politicians base their opinions on what they see and hear in the national media and that is frightening. At times, the hearing seemed to me to be a media driven witch hunt, going after ethanol. The chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers said that ethanol accounts for somewhere between 2 and 3 percent of increasing global food prices! High energy costs and growing world wide demand have a much bigger impact on food prices but ethanol seems to be the scapegoat. The media, always looking for a quick and simple reason for something, has seemingly chosen to overlook the facts and continues to mislead people. I thought Pennsylvania Senator Robert Casey summed it up very well at last week's hearing when he said the reporting in the media blaming ethanol for higher food prices seems to be shallow and without depth. HOW TRUE! I wonder how many of these ethanol bashing media types know the difference between field corn and sweet corn! Tom Buis did his best to explain it to the committee and hopefully they listened. I really think we are at a crucial crossroads with renewable energy as Congress questions the Renewable Fuels Standard in the energy bill and its support for bio fuel production. Now is not the time to back off and discourage research and investment in an industry that offers us a chance to break free of our dependence on other countries for the majority of our energy. Taking the easy path of least resistance is what got us in this energy mess in the first place.

We seem to have a strange approach to problem solving in this country. It's obvious that the main reason our food costs are going up is the higher cost of fuel. The solution that some are calling for is less ethanol production although ethanol keeps our fuel prices from being even higher. How does that make sense? It's like the situation we have with our economy. Many point to the weak dollar as our main economic problem. So what do we do, we keep lowering interest rates that in turn keep weakening the dollar!

Here's another interesting story that most of our media will ignore. Jim Lane, editor of the Biofuels Digest, has released a study on Meat vs Fuel. It concludes that for every bushel of grain used to make U.S. ethanol, SIX are used to support Chinese meat demand! Jim will be on AgriTalk Monday to discuss his study.

I've been shocked at how poor of job the media has done in reporting on these issues. I'm afraid it is a result of the total lack of knowledge much of our media and overall population has concerning agriculture. I've found that if you talk with someone and explain the facts about energy and food prices, often times they will say that makes sense and wonder why they hadn't heard that before. If the media is doing this poor of job of reporting on food and fuel, it makes me wonder how misled we are on other topics they cover. Unfortunately, credibility seems to have been replaced by entertainment!

Another harsh critic of biofuels production has been the U.N.'s World Food Program. Now comes word that despite the claim of a "silent tsunami" in rising food prices and the urgent need for donations, the WFP actually had a cash stockpile of more than $1.22 billion! That should be able to buy quite a bit of food even at higher prices. I understand there are starving people in the world and we need to help them but it is amazing how ethanol is now being blamed for world hunger. As former Ag Secretary John Block pointed out last week, the U.S. used to get criticized by other countries for over producing and driving down world markets with our surpluses and our food donations. Doesn't seem American agriculture can win no matter what.


The farm bill is supposedly close to being done in Congress but still a long ways from what the President will approve. I agree that reform is needed although it remains to be seen how much will be accomplished in this bill. It seems that in order to get a farm bill passed, more money must be taken from production agriculture and shifted to food stamp and nutrition programs. I understand these are important programs that need funding but if you keep taking from production, don't you risk being able to provide those programs with the food their recipients need.

I find it interesting that with all of the concern and discussion of high food and fuel costs, there seems to be little talk about reducing speed limits to conserve fuel or cutting back on the amount of food wasted every day in this country. I guess it is a lot easier to blame ethanol!

Have a good week and hopefully the weather will allow more planting to get done.

Be sure to join us on AgriTalk!

Those are my thoughts, what are yours? Email me at host@agritalk.com
Agritalk

Upcoming Events

Vance Media Corporation
10901 W. 84th Terr.
Lenexa, KS 66214
913-438-8700
AgriTalk is a supporting member of the National Association of Farm Broadcasters
© 2008 Vance Media's Food360 | All Rights Reserved | User Agreement