The head of the National Biodiesel Board is telling consumers not to buy what some grocers are selling: placing the blame for food price hikes on biofuels.

Joe Jobe is blasting the Grocery Manufacturers Association’s campaign to blame the green fuels for rising food costs:

“The feeding frenzy on biofuels as the reason for higher food prices has got to stop. The GMA’s anti-biofuels campaign is not based on sound science, but rather on their desire to find an easy target for defending their profits,” Jobe said.

The NBB applauded Senators Charles Grassley (R-IA), Byron Dorgan (D-ND), John Thune (R-SD), Ben Nelson (D-NE), Kit Bond (R-MO), and Ken Salazar (D-CO), who joined today in sharp criticism of GMA’s public relations plan to discredit biofuels. They said the grocers’ attempts to blame biofuels for food price increases are not based on sound science, sound economics, or common sense. The senators expressed strong support for continued federal programs that encourage biofuel production and use.

The NBB also points to a U.S. Department of Agriculture economic analysis that says the real driving factors behind the skyrocketing prices in the grocery aisle are high energy prices, increasing global demand, drought and other factors… not biodiesel and ethanol. In addition, biodiesel can be made from non-food sources and waste, such as restaurant grease. And even with using soybeans, 80 percent of the soybean can still be used for animal feed or food.