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Illinois Farm Bureau members dial displeasure over GMA ethanol smear campaign
Illinois Farm Bureau members are being urged to call a half dozen large food companies in the state to express their concern over the companies’ participation in their national association’s smear campaign targeting ethanol.

Each of the companies is a member of the Washington D.C.-based Grocery Manufacturers Association which has recently embarked on a multi-million dollar campaign to persuade “policy elites” and consumers that support for ethanol policies are responsible for driving up food prices and global hunger.

The GMA plan was recently exposed on the floor of the U.S Senate by Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa.

“Our members are very unhappy about this unfair, below-the-beltway campaign and they’re letting the food companies know it,” said Illinois Farm Bureau President Philip Nelson, a Seneca, IL grain and livestock producer.

“When food companies throw their money into misguided disinformation efforts like this, they need to recognize that what they are really doing is attacking the hard working people who grow food and fuel for this nation,” Nelson said. “Essentially, they are biting the hand that feeds them.”

County Farm Bureau members will be calling the companies which include some of the most recognizable names in the food industry like Kraft Foods, Sara Lee, ConAgra Foods, McDonalds, Del Monte Foods, and PepsiCo. Each of the companies is either based in Illinois or has large operations in the state.

“If there is an issue with food prices or biofuels production, all members of the food chain should work together to solve it,” Nelson said.

Illinois Farm Bureau is also encouraging members of other state Farm Bureaus to call food companies in their states and demand that the companies either withdraw from GMA or redirect the association’s resources into more productive anti-hunger initiatives.

“There are many reasons for the increase in food prices, including record high oil prices, a weak dollar, strong international demand, and weather. To lay it all on ethanol’s doorstep is at best simplistic and at worst dishonest,” Nelson said.