Grocers, farmers take their ethanol fight to Capitol Hill

ChicagoTribune.com
By CHRISTOPHER LEONARD AP Business Writer
2:50 PM CDT, June 3, 2008

ST. LOUIS - The rhetoric is set to heat up this summer over the use of crop-based fuels like ethanol, as a number of activist groups will protest biofuels as a key reason for rising food costs. While the voices might be many, the source behind them is a single food lobbying group.

The Grocery Manufacturers Association plans a high-profile campaign against biofuels that will draw together diverse groups like hunger-prevention advocates and environmental activists. Documents leaked to the media this month show the GMA has hired the high-end Washington lobbying firm Glover Park Group to coordinate the campaign.

Farm state senators -- from Iowa's Charles Grassley to Missouri's Kit Bond -- are crying foul. They say food companies should support farmers who are seeing high corn prices for the first time in years. They also say the campaign is misleading, and that ethanol makes only a tiny contribution to rising food prices.

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