Grainnet

Washington—National Farmers Union President Roger Johnson made the following statement April 16 in response to a report released last week by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) on the impact of ethanol on food prices.

"The CBO report states what we have known all along, America's farmers are not a significant reason for increasing grocery store prices.

"The report states that increased ethanol production caused a mere 0.5 and 0.8 percentage point increase in the price of food between April 2007 and April 2008.

"Increased ethanol production saved consumers $48 billion at the gas pump in 2007.

The food cost increase attributable to ethanol is far less - between $6.1 and $9.7 billion per year.

"In other words, for every extra dollar consumers spent on food, they saved between about $5.00 and $8.00 in gasoline cost.

"Another comparison is the farmer's share of the retail food dollar.

"The retail price of Safeway brand corn flakes on March 31 was $2.99.

"The farmer's share was $0.06, just 1.9 percent.

"Despite the efforts by some to blame higher food costs on farmers and commodity prices, it is evident this is not the case.

"NFU is again calling for Congress to reconvene hearings to investigate higher retail food prices; while commodity prices have tanked since last summer's peak, grocery store prices remain high."

For more information, call 202-554-1600.

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• NFU

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