by DAN PILLER
Ethanol is again under fire as corn prices have climbed and food costs rise.
An anti-ethanol advocate accused biofuels of being a factor in global food shortages Friday.
The ethanol industry fired back, noting distiller grains are a cattle feed and that ethanol is the only nonfossil fuel available in mass quantities.
Meanwhile, corn's price rose again on the Chicago Board of Trade by 8 cents to $7.06 per bushel for the March contract. Corn's price has doubled since last June as domestic corn stocks have dwindled.
Nationally, about 37 percent of the corn crop goes to ethanol production. In Iowa, the amount is 60 percent.
Princeton University professor Tim Searchinger, a frequent ethanol critic, checked in with an op-ed piece Friday in the Washington Post essentially accusing ethanol of causing food shortages.
Searchinger didn't limit his criticism to corn-fed ethanol.
"Brazil's reliance on sugar ethanol and Europe's on biodiesel have comparably increased growth rates in the demand for sugar and driven up demand for vegetable oil," Searchinger said.
Growth Energy, the biofuels lobbying group put together by ethanol producer Poet and other biofuels interests, fired back with a statement and a news conference Friday in Washington, D.C.
Growth Energy noted that the ethanol fermentation process removes the starch, but leaves the protein kernels to be used as animal feed.
"Ethanol is both a food and a fuel business. What is ignored in this piece is that every ethanol plant in the country turns out animal feed as well as fuel - we only take the starch out of the corn kernel but put all the protein, fiber and oils right back into the food supply as 'dried distillers grains,' " Growth Energy said.
Growth Energy added, as a reminder, that ethanol is the only biofuels game in town until cellulosic ethanol is developed further.
"There is only one commercially viable alternative to this country's dependence on foreign oil, and that is domestic ethanol," Growth Energy said. "Every day, foreign oil is getting riskier, costlier and dirtier to extract. On the other hand, with cutting-edge technology and innovation, domestic ethanol is getting cleaner, smarter and more abundant."
An anti-ethanol advocate accused biofuels of being a factor in global food shortages Friday.
The ethanol industry fired back, noting distiller grains are a cattle feed and that ethanol is the only nonfossil fuel available in mass quantities.
Meanwhile, corn's price rose again on the Chicago Board of Trade by 8 cents to $7.06 per bushel for the March contract. Corn's price has doubled since last June as domestic corn stocks have dwindled.
Nationally, about 37 percent of the corn crop goes to ethanol production. In Iowa, the amount is 60 percent.
Princeton University professor Tim Searchinger, a frequent ethanol critic, checked in with an op-ed piece Friday in the Washington Post essentially accusing ethanol of causing food shortages.
Searchinger didn't limit his criticism to corn-fed ethanol.
"Brazil's reliance on sugar ethanol and Europe's on biodiesel have comparably increased growth rates in the demand for sugar and driven up demand for vegetable oil," Searchinger said.
Growth Energy, the biofuels lobbying group put together by ethanol producer Poet and other biofuels interests, fired back with a statement and a news conference Friday in Washington, D.C.
Growth Energy noted that the ethanol fermentation process removes the starch, but leaves the protein kernels to be used as animal feed.
"Ethanol is both a food and a fuel business. What is ignored in this piece is that every ethanol plant in the country turns out animal feed as well as fuel - we only take the starch out of the corn kernel but put all the protein, fiber and oils right back into the food supply as 'dried distillers grains,' " Growth Energy said.
Growth Energy added, as a reminder, that ethanol is the only biofuels game in town until cellulosic ethanol is developed further.
"There is only one commercially viable alternative to this country's dependence on foreign oil, and that is domestic ethanol," Growth Energy said. "Every day, foreign oil is getting riskier, costlier and dirtier to extract. On the other hand, with cutting-edge technology and innovation, domestic ethanol is getting cleaner, smarter and more abundant."
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