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Tuesday, June 03, 2008
Environment - "Corn Prices Rise, Pitting Chickens Against Ethanol"
Cindy Skrzycki writes the Tuesday column, The Regulators, for the Washington Post.. Her column today begins:
Taking corn from the mouths of chickens to put into the gas tanks of U.S. cars and trucks is causing feathers to fly in Washington.The $40 billion chicken industry, along with livestock producers, oil interests, grocers and some environmental and anti-hunger groups are hoping to put up a regulatory blockade to stop the diversion of corn stocks into the brewing of billions of gallons of ethanol for vehicles this year.
"It has never gone up this far, this fast," Richard L. Lobb, a spokesman for the National Chicken Council in Washington, said of the jump in corn prices to $6 a bushel and more, triple what they were two years ago. "We are competing directly with the people who make ethanol, and they are outbidding us for corn."
During the past few weeks, groups hurt by the food-vs.-fuel war over the price of corn have sought waivers -- including the first official petition from the governor of Texas -- from the ethanol mandates that Congress passed as part of last year's energy bill. The exercise illustrates how a victory for one interest group, the corn farmers and ethanol producers, can trigger counter-lobbying by others.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on June 3, 2008 09:32 AM
Posted to Environment