Today in Biofuels Opinion: Leading Republican says Democrats to blame for ethanol mandate, food prices; US news networks analyzed for bias in biofuels reporting

The ranking Republican on the House Agriculture Committee, Representative Robert W. Goodlatte of Viriginia, said that Democrats were to blame for rising food prices because they placed ethanol mandates in the Energy Independence and Security Act. “When corn prices go as high as they were going, people shift their production out of wheat into corn, out of soybeans into corn, out of rice into corn, even out of cotton into corn,” Mr. Goodlatte said. “The mandate basically says ethanol comes ahead of food on your table, comes ahead of feed for livestock, comes ahead of grains available for export.” The mandate was originally proposed by President Bush in the 2007 State of the Union Address, and was signed into law in December. The mandates in the new legislation take effect commencing in 2009.

Business and media reported that the ABC, NBC and CBS news networks ran 69 stories about corn ethanol since January 2007 and said that half of the stories mentioned a connection between ethanol and rising food prices. “On the ABC “World News with Charles Gibson” April 10, David Muir reported that “the soaring cost of food is fueling anger and depression” in Haiti. Rice is up 147 percent in the last year, Muir reported. Grain is up 47 percent; dairy is up 80 percent. “Those biofuels are, in fact, a large part of the equation,” Muir said, making him one of only three network reporters to connect ethanol to the crisis. “Many farmers around the world who once grew wheat and rice, now grow corn and sugar cane instead, to produce ethanol.” “

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