Food-related industries launch anti-biofuel campaign

Industry groups representing companies including Kellogg, Tyson Foods and Kroger are coordinating efforts to reduce U.S. biofuels-use requirements with a new “Food Before Fuel” lobbying campaign.

The Grocery Manufacturers Association, the American Meat Institute, the National Restaurant Association and other groups say rising corn-based ethanol production is pushing food costs higher. Adding industry muscle to fight a federal requirement to about double ethanol production to 15 billion gallons by 2015 may slow the increase, helping company profits and easing consumer prices, said grocery association chief Cal Dooley.
“We are calling on Congress to step back and re-evaluate our biofuels policy, which is distorting the marketplace and harming the environment and consumers,” Dooley, a former Democratic congressman from California, said in an interview before the campaign was officially unveiled today.

Biofuels are straining companies such as Tyson Foods, the largest U.S. meatpacker. Chief Executive Officer Richard Bond has said that costs for animal feed, which competes with ethanol for corn, have increased enough to make higher meat prices inevitable. Corn futures have jumped 72 percent in the past year.

The campaign also includes advocates for the poor and the environment, Dooley said, showing wide-ranging concern about the social and economic impacts of biofuels.

Houston Chronicle