Tolman: Ethanol Unfairly Blamed

Nebraska Farmer

Ann Toner atoner@farmprogress.com
May 12, 2008

How quickly the tide of public opinion can turn.

According to Rick Tolman, chief executive officer of the National Corn Growers Association, oil companies and misinformed media and consumer spokesmen are behind the campaign to vilify biofuels manufacturing.

Biofuels have gone from being one of the country's answers to the rising price of imported oil, to being blamed food price inflation at home and abroad. Big city editorial cartoons depict Third World children starving because fat cat Americans are using "their" food to make ethanol.

Tolman used a Lincoln visit to try to refute those inaccuracies to grassroots media who maybe understand enough about farming and the grain business to understand what he had to say. "It's not food OR fuel, it's food AND fuel," he said.

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