Congressional Budget Office: Ethanol increases cost of food assistance programs

That corn-based snake oil, ethanol, is driving up the cost of federal food assistance programs.

From the Meatingplace, free registration required:

A report by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found that food prices raised by increasing ethanol production will boost federal expenditures on food assistance programs.

In the report, published Thursday, CBO estimated that the increased use of ethanol would cost Washington as much as an additional $900 million to pay for food stamps and child nutrition programs in 2009.

CBO predicted increased spending for food programs overall resulting from higher food prices will total some $5.3 billion in the current budget year. Ramped-up use of corn-based ethanol accounted for 10 percent to 15 percent of the increase in food prices between April 2007 and 2008, the report states.

According to CBO, ethanol production rose 34 percent from 2006 to 2007 and another 42 percent from 2007 to 2008, though much of the increase was spurred by other factors such as spiking gasoline prices.

While a US Senator, Barack Obama was an enthusiastic supporter of expanding ethanol production. His secretary of agriculture, former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack, has been a major ethanol cheerleader.

One quarter of the corn grown in America goes towards ethanol production--which by the way is a heavily subsidized industry. There is no possible way that ethanol can wean us from foreign oil.

But it's driving up the cost of food

Let's end this madness.

Related posts:

Ag Sec Vilsack peddling ethanol
Ethanol alert: Former Iowa Gov. Vilsack to be named ag secretary
Ethanol responsible for 15 percent of Iowa's greenhouse gases
Ethanol bailout next?
Ethanol backlash in the Midwest
Largest West Coast ethanol plant shuts down

Technorati tags: corn farming ethanol energy businesseconomy democrats Obama Barack Obama Vilsack