One of my favorite television programs as a child was Dragnet. Each week Sgt. Joe Friday and his partner Bill Gannon would make Los Angeles safer for average citizens by putting the bad guys behind bars. Sgt Friday, played by Jack Webb, would get the bottom of things when he would say, “Just the facts.” He knew that facts were what solved the case. We need Sgt. Friday to moderate the food vs. fuel debate that continues to rage in the world’s media far above its importance and impact. The seemingly unending torrent of criticism of renewable fuels and the agricultural industry that produces them has not only ignored the facts but has, in some cases, deliberately falsified the facts to prop up the phony debate.
Last week, a group of top ag leaders got together at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. in an attempt to set the record straight. What resulted was both laughable and pathetic.

Like so many of our public debates the food vs. fuel argument is being led by the big time media outlets of the East and West Coasts plus Washington DC. Day after day these media outlets keep up a drumbeat of criticism of the renewable fuels and the corn industry. These masters of manipulation have blamed higher corn prices, caused by ethanol production, for higher food costs, world hunger, environmental calamity, and civil unrest. In an attempt to counter this misinformation, several of the best spokespeople in American agriculture were sent to the National Press Club to meet with the best and the brightest journalists in the nation. They laid out just the facts:

•We are not running out of corn, in fact production hit a record last year.

•Higher corn prices are not the main reason for higher food prices, only 25 percent of the price hike in food can be accounted for by higher corn prices.

•Ethanol production is not taking food away from hungry people.

•This is a global situation and cannot be caused or solved by the U.S. alone.

•Ethanol production and use is not causing environmental damage.
After a clear and careful explanation, these college-educated, communications professionals started asking the stupidest questions I have ever heard. They kept repeating the same misinformation that has been circulating in the media for the past month and seemed not to hear the facts that had been elucidated.

Over and over, Rick Tolman with the National Corn Growers had to explain that field corn is different than sweet corn and that ethanol production does not compete with food production. He patiently explained that last year U.S. farmers planted 85 million acres of field corn and 631,000 acres of sweet corn. All of the sweet corn went into human consumption while only 9 percent of the field corn ended up in the food chain, mostly as corn sweetener in our soft drinks or corn oil in our margarine. As for the rest of the field corn, 42 percent went into livestock feed, 17 percent for export, and only 22 percent for ethanol. He went on to explain to these media morons that, “There are 56 pounds of corn in a bushel so, at $3, corn is 5.3 cents a pound and at $6, corn is 6.7 cents per pound.”

He then explained how little corn is in many common food items: “It takes 2.8 lbs of corn to produce a pound of beef, thus at $3 a bushel there is 15 cents worth of corn in a pound of beef. When corn jumps to $6 a bushel, it only adds 4 cents to the cost of a pound of beef. For milk, it takes 1.8 pounds of corn to make a gallon; and there is only 10 ounces of corn in a box of corn flakes that costs over $3.”

He added another fact that has been left out of the food versus fuel debate. OPEC revenues have increased more than five times in the past few years and 38 of the world’s 40 poorest nations are oil importers. Thus OPEC has, and continues, to profit from the poorest and hungriest people in the world.

Tom Buis with the National Farmers Union had to explain to the media elite that U.S. ethanol had nothing to do with the world shortage of rice or the much-publicized shortage of rice flour by some U.S. food retailers. He also explained that the hike in wheat prices was caused by weather problems in several nations and had nothing to do with ethanol production.

Bob Dinneen with the Renewable Fuels Association warned that, if detractors were successful in halting the development of ethanol, it would prevent the eventual development of other renewable fuels such as cellulosic ethanol. In exasperation, he told the journalists they had chosen “convenience over facts” when reporting on the renewable fuels industry. In my opinion, they are guilty as charged and to borrow a phrase from another TV cop show of my youth, it is time to “book’em, Danno.”

The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of Farm World. Readers with questions or comments for Gary Truitt may write to him in care of this publication.