Illinois Ag Community Is Divided on Ethanol Policy

Prairie Farmer
Josh Flint jflint@farmprogress.com
June 25, 2008

High grain prices continue to drive a wedge between Illinois grain farmers and pork producers.

At the Illinois Agricultural Legislative Roundtable, the Illinois Pork Producers' Association voiced its opposition to current ethanol policy. The comments came after Adam Nielsen, Illinois Farm Bureau director of issue management, discussed the recent showdown between ethanol and the Grocery Manufacturer's Association.

Phil Borgic, president of IPPA, says the organization first became concerned when the Renewable Fuels Standard was passed in 2005.

"The mandates and subsidies were coming too fast," Borgic notes. "When 70% of your cost is feedstuffs and that has doubled in the past 18 months, that's a big change."

Borgic's heard of large pork producers who have reduced sow herds by 10% in the last 18 months as a result of corn costs. He says the blender's credit and ethanol tariff have created an unfair marketplace in the hunt for corn.

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