Group questions Grocery Gang, promotes biofuels

At the National Press Club today, a group of ethanol producers and supporters announced the launch of Growth Energy, a group of ethanol supporters "committed to the promise of agriculture and growing America's economy through cleaner, greener energy."

At the launch, the group fired across the bow of the Grocery Gang, asking why food prices continue to rise while corn prices have been cut in half. The Gang spent most of this year blaming ethanol for higher corn prices and, in turn, higher food prices.

Growth Energy also released a new policy brief and previewed "The Truth about Big Food" advertising campaign "to fight back against untruthful attacks by the food industry on ethanol." For copies of the brief and ad, plus a whole lot more, be sure to check out Growth Energy's website, www.GrowthEnergy.org.

(The Grocery Gang has been smacked a couple other times recently. Check out this and this.)

Here are a couple paragraphs from the Growth Energy news release:

"Big Food and their Washington lobbyists have been trying to blame the rising cost of food on American ethanol producers and the cost of corn. Well, now that the price of corn has dropped more than 50 percent since the summer, we ask the Big Food industry to explain to the American people why food prices are still so high," said Jeff Broin, CEO of POET. "The lies the Big Food lobby has been spreading about clean, green biofuels have finally been exposed as an intellectually dishonest smear campaign. It's wrong and we're coming together to ask Big Food to give struggling Americans a break."
…...

"We believe ethanol is America's best renewable fuel, reliable and affordable right now," said Wayne Hoovestol, CEO of Green Plains Renewable Energy, Inc. "American ethanol is high-tech, homegrown and on the verge of innovative breakthroughs that will make it even cleaner and greener for the long-term."

If you'd like to listen to the news conference, it's at the bottom of this post on the Domestic Fuel blog.