Ethanol is a factor in corn price

Tuesday's front-page story, stating that the amount of corn used to produce ethanol now exceeds the amount of corn fed to animals, contains a statement by Monte Shaw, president of the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association: “Every credible study has clearly found the effects of ethanol policies is negligible on the price of corn.”

Corn was selling at $1.86 a bushel at the end of 2005 before ethanol was subsidized and mandated. Monday's price of $7.07 is an increase of 380 percent in six years. Certainly a number of factors have caused this increase, but with ethanol now using something over 30 percent of all corn produced, Shaw's statement about “every credible study” is a fabrication.

Virtually all studies, even those promoting ethanol, will admit the self-evident fact that ethanol subsidies and mandates are a considerable factor, if not the principal cause of the huge price increase in corn - also a main factor for the rising cost of food generally. Shaw's statement is illogical, inaccurate, deceptive and self-serving.

Dick Roggensack

Waukon