“This report is welcome to the farmers and those I represent,” said Rick Tolman, CEO of the National Corn Growers Association. “This proves that there are no food and fuel issues, but merely the work of a campaign designed to shift blame on farmers and take our eyes off the ball.”

Tolman joined several others in the agriculture and ethanol community today to applaud the recent report, “The Impact of Ethanol Use on Food Prices and Greenhouse-Gas Emissions,” authored by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). The report concluded that from April 2007-April 2008 ethanol did have a slight impact on rising food prices but that other culprits, such as high energy prices, had the most impact on rising food costs. Of the 5.1 percent increase in food prices, expanded ethanol production contributed between 0.5 and 0.8 percent of the increase in food prices measured by the consumer price index as determined by the CBO report.

Despite several reports confirming that ethanol and corn prices had a small role in rising food prices, Bob Stallman, President, American Farm Bureau Federation; Tom Buis, CEO, Growth Energy; Roger Johnson, President, National Farmers Union; along with Rick Tolman jointly called for Congress to hold new hearings to determine why food prices are still on the rise. Johnson said that, “We’d love to see the same witnesses who blamed farmers in Congressional hearings last year.”

Tolman stated, “Our farmers are owed a huge apology for the damage they have done to farmers in the eye of the consumer.” He noted that agricultural technology continues to improve each year and that 2007 and 2008 have seen record corn bushels on decreased acres and this trend is expected to continue in 2009 and beyond.

The group reiterated the importance of ethanol in reducing America’s dependence on oil and stressed the importance of increasing the blend wall to 15 percent (E15) in order for the country to meet the goals laid out in the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS).