How is ethanol driving up prices at the grocery store?
The role of corn and ethanol in grocery prices has been grossly exaggerated by critics who have much to gain in keeping ethanol’s potential limited. Research shows that energy prices have at least twice the impact as corn in the grocery aisle. Corn prices, made higher lately in part due to ethanol demand, do have some impact on foods in which corn is an ingredient – namely meat, dairy, and poultry. However, energy prices (spiking with oil reaching all time highs), have a much more dramatic impact on food prices because all foods are dependent upon this expensive energy for processing, packaging, and transportation. As cellulosic technologies become commercially viable, this concern will be obsolete.
