MyGourmetConnection

Here are some food price facts to think about this Fourth of July:

Chicken

Skyrocketing energy bills are making nearly every facet of farming and selling chickens more expensive, particularly transportation. The average chicken sold in the United States travels 1000 miles just to get to the market, because the vast majority comes from Maryland or Arkansas. Source: Univ. of Wisconsin

Pork

According to USDA, the price of pork chops, ribs and bacon increased by about 2 percent in 2008, but a leading economist at Purdue University attributes 75% of corn cost increases to oil prices. Sources: Purdue University and USDA

Beer

Retail beer costs are virtually the same as 12 months ago, before Congress passed the biofuels bill. Source: BLS

Potato Salad

In the last year, potato prices increased by almost 9%, despite a big 2007 harvest and ample stocks of potatoes in storage; and mayonnaise, like most other products made using vegetable oil, has increased in price as higher incomes overseas mean better diets and more vegetable oil consumption. Neither of these prices are impacted by biofuels. Source: AFBF Marketbasket Survey, USDA

Fruit Salad

Apples (up 14% this year), bananas (up 26% this year), and orange juice from concentrate (up 32% since 2006) are all more expensive recently. Harvesting fresh fruit requires a great deal of hand labor, which has grown more scarce in recent years, and the cost of freight has shot up with the price of fuel. Source: American Farm Bureau Economists

Plastic Cutlery

Not even the most hardened ethanol opponent can blame ethanol for the rising prices of plastic knives, forks, and spoons. Polystyrene -- the type of plastic in your fork -- is produced from crude oil, and the price of crude oil increased by 97.6% in the past year! Source: Energy Information Administration

Blaming biofuels for rising food prices is deceptive. While ethanol has impacted corn prices, the United States Department of Agriculture and the White House Council of Economic Advisors have stated that increased corn demand is only responsible for "3 percent of the more than 40 percent increase we have seen in world food prices this year."

People also forget that biofuels actually help keep food prices down. In fact, according to a report done by Merrill Lynch, biofuels have reduced gasoline and diesel prices by 16-25%. This is because ethanol is blended into gasoline and is cheaper than gasoline. Eliminating biofuels would just push up the price of gas, and thereby make food cost more.

Just announced to the public and the media, FoodPriceTruth.org was developed in response to a coordinated public relations campaign against biofuels designed to make the American people, the media and U.S. policymakers believe that biofuels are the driving force behind rising food costs. The goal of FoodPriceTruth.org is to set the record straight by discussing food prices in real terms. You can read more about the Smear Campaign against Ethanol on the FoodPriceTruth.org website.

History tells us that the price of food goes up even when the price the farmer receives goes down. "On average, the retail price of food rose by 3 percent per year from 1980 to 2005," notes David Morris, Vice President of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. "During the same period the price of corn and soybeans and wheat remained the same."

"Don't let anyone tell you that your food prices are so high because of biofuels," said Coleman. He concluded: "Biofuels, like other renewable alternatives, offer a chance for America to grow and innovate our way to energy independence, preserve the environment through the development of cleaner burning fuels and lower food costs by making transportation less costly."

CONTACT: Gary Meltz or Jason Miller, FoodPriceTruth.org
202-296-0263
Web Site: http://foodpricetruth.org
http://www.newrules.org/electricity/drivingourway.pdf

If you enjoyed this post, please feel free to share ~

→ Return to category: Food News

• Related Terms:
• food news
• food prices