The National Biodiesel Board is refusing to let food companies spread fear and misinformation in the continuing food-versus-fuel debate.
NBB CEO Joe Jobe, responding to Kraft Foods’ CEO Irene Rosenfeld’s blame of biofuels for the rise in food prices, has submitted his own opinion piece to USA Today asking how Kraft can continue to make soaring profits at the cost of its customers… while trying to wrongly blame biodiesel and ethanol:
[Rosenfeld] said, “Forty percent of the food supply is being diverted for use in fuel.” Almost half of all grains, meats, dairy, vegetables and fruit in the world are being converted to fuel? This is fear-mongering at its worst.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization found that of the 10.4 billion acres of available farm land, only 3.7 billion acres are used. Of that, less than 1% is used for biofuels such as ethanol and biodiesel.
Food companies have blamed biofuels all year for higher prices. Rosenfeld’s statement shows how far companies will go to distract Americans as Kraft raked in $1.4 billion in earnings last quarter. Adjusted for inflation, corn and wheat have dropped by 50% since spring, and soybean prices are lower than at almost any other time since the Great Depression even as biofuels production expands. This year, oil companies made more than ever in profits. The difference is, when oil prices dropped, so did the price at the pump. Too bad Big Food isn’t living up to Big Oil’s standards.
So the next time you’re picking up a box of “the Cheesiest” maybe you should ask, why is it still the priciest? Rest assured it’s not biodiesel’s and ethanol’s faults.