Mike Bryan, publisher and chief executive officer of Ethanol Producer Magazine, has accused the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) of promoting a hoax on the American public with allegations that corn-based ethanol has been responsible for driving up the cost of food in the past year.
As evidence, Mr. Bryan points to the recent decline in oil and commodities such as corn even though ethanol production has continued to rise. He also questions why food prices that went up as a result of fuel and feed have not come down considering the precipitous decline in those commodities in the past month.
Mr. Bryan wrote, "It's all been a farce, a marketing strategy of criminal proportion that has allowed the greed of the GMA to encourage grocers across the country to raise consumer prices and blame fuel-grade ethanol."
According to Mr. Bryan, there has been no tradeoff with farmers having to choose between selling corn for fuel or food. There has, he asserted, been enough to fulfill the market's needs. "We have always had more than enough grain. This year's corn crop will be the second-largest in history."
Mr. Bryan believers GMA has done a disservice to farmers and the American consumer. "The grocery industry was able to convince Congress and others that higher commodity prices were starving people and causing human catastrophes of epidemic proportion. The true fact is that those high commodity prices were the only global bright spot for agriculture. It's an opportunity lost for countries around the world to improve their self-sufficiency by cultivating millions of acres of arable land that now lies fallow because of low prices."
Discussion Question: What is your reaction to Mike Bryan's assertion that the Grocery Manufacturers Association has led a hoax on the American pubic about the role of corn in rising food prices?