Chicken and cattle producers joined forces on Parliament Hill last week to decry how ethanol production has affected their feed costs and ability to compete.
Governments and the ethanol industry insist that ethanol’s effect on grain prices has been grossly overestimated, but Chicken Farmers of Canada and the Ontario Cattlemen’s Association (OCA) see it differently.
During an April 21 appearance before the House of Commons agriculture committee looking at competitiveness of the agriculture industry, OCA president Gord Hardy insisted that government ethanol policy makes his industry less competitive.
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Americans are simply eating less sugar. Consumption started to decline in the 1990s as artificial sweeteners grew in popularity. Farmers this year planted their smallest sugar beet acreage since 1982.
He complained about “the long-term systematic negative effects that ethanol production policies have on our industry in Ontario.”
Hardy said a study by the George Morris Centre, an agricultural think tank based in Guelph, Ont., concluded that if government support for ethanol production from corn or grain did not change, “feeding of cattle and hogs in Ontario will over time decline by 70 percent. That’s huge.”
At the same meeting, Chicken Farmers of Canada general manager Mike Dungate said federal legislation offering financial incentives for ethanol expansion and a mandate requiring increased biofuel use are damaging.
- o MPs on the committee pursued the criticism of government promotion of ethanol industry expansion.
Liberals and Conservatives have supported the policy.
