CHICKEN OWNERS: STOP ETHANOL REQUIREMENT
Monday, June 16th, 2008 -- 2:35 PM
There are many people jumping on or off the corn-based ethanol bandwagon. Usually, the reasons have more to do with economics than environmental factors.Consider the urgent plea from the broiler chicken industry. They're calling on the federal government to scale back the "Renewable Fuel Standard" program, which requires and subsidizes ethanol to be added to gasoline.
They say it has already distorted the market and harmed companies in their industry by driving up feed costs.
Virtually all the ethanol produced in the country today is distilled from corn. A tariff of 54 cents per gallon is used to discourage imports of ethanol made from sugar in Brazil.
The price of corn has skyrocketed since 2006, when the RFS became a major factor in the market. Corn traded at about $2.22 per bushel on major exchanges in August 2006. Corn is now trading around $7 a bushel, the highest level ever reached.
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