May 30, 2008: “Food Report Criticizes Biofuel Policies”, an article in the New York Times today, buries something very important:

But the authors of the report cautioned that crop prices may be more volatile because of less predictable weather patterns, speculators in agricultural futures markets and low levels of stockpiles of grains.

So, the report, done by the: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, decided to focus their report on the negative impacts of biofuels, even though crop prices will rise not because of biofuels, but because of weather patterns and commodity pricing on an open market. This should be no surprise. Just last year a UN representative said that biofuels were a “crime against humanity.”

May 19, 2008: Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa issued a press release today urging Iowans to fight back against the Grocery Manufacturers of America (GMA) anti-ethanol smear campaign.

Senator Grassley also wrote to many GMA member companies have operations in Iowa. In the letter, Grassley wrote:

The propaganda being used by the Grocery Manufacturers Association and its high-paid lobbying firms in Washington, D.C., is patently false and should be disavowed. Administration officials with the Department of Energy, U.S. Department of Agriculture and the President’s Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers have all determined that the production of biofuels has had only a small impact on the rise in retail food prices domestically and globally.

We hope these companies will demand that GMA immediately cease and desist their PR smear campaign against ethanol.

May 19 2008: Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer criticized efforts to blame ethanol makers. At a press conference he said:

Underground things that have been going on for several weeks to generate the public opinion that some of these things [the federal biofuel mandate) ought to be changed.

Thank you Secretary Schafer.

May 14, 2008: Politico.com blogger/reporter Ben Smith picked up on the Roll Call story and tied the Glover Park Group – who is implementing the anti-ethanol smear campaign for the Grocery Manufacturers of America – to Hillary Clinton’s presidential aspirations.

This must have made Glover Park’s day.