By TIM ALEXANDER
Illinois Correspondent

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — A campaign by special interests, a group of U.S. legislators and a governor to waive the nation’s renewable fuel standard (RFS) in response to higher grocery prices has the Illinois Farm Bureau (IFB) fighting mad.

So mad, in fact, that the organization has launched a new website at www. farmingforyou.com hoping to dispel some of the myths about corn ethanol production and its relevance to food prices.
“Rolling back the RFS would have almost no impact on corn prices,” said IFB President Philip Nelson, who recently contacted U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Stephen Johnson to urge him to reject requests by the Grocery Manufacturers Assoc. (GMA) and Texas Gov. Rick Perry to eliminate or partially roll back the nation’s RFS.

“But, it would mean an instant and unwelcome in-crease in the record prices American motorists and truckers are already paying at the pump.”

Perry and the GMA joined a group of more than 20 Republican senators, including presidential candidate John McCain (Ariz.), in calling for a rollback of the nation’s RFS.

The GMA, a coalition of more than 300 food companies, rolled out its new Food Before Fuel website www.foodb4fuel.com with a recent press conference in Washington, D.C., urging people to visit its site and tell the EPA to approve a waiver of the RFS, which mandates production of 36 billion gallons of renewable fuels in the United States by 2022.

Meanwhile, a group of senators opposed to a rollback of the RFS held their own press conference to “dispel myths” associated with what the senators have dubbed an “ethanol smear campaign” launched by the GMA. Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and others believe the GMA’s campaign could reverse the RFS, eliminate federal ethanol tax credits, lift a current U.S. tariff on imported ethanol and promote cheaper Brazilian ethanol.

According to the IFB, the senators derided the efforts of the GMA and others as contradictory to Congress’ 30-year policy of promoting the domestic renewable fuels industry in order to lessen U.S. dependency on foreign oil and improve air quality.

“Until now, there has been only support for these policies. Now, ethanol and other biofuels are being made a scapegoat for a whole variety of problems,” the senators stated in a news release. “But, none of these recent criticisms are based on sound science, sound economics or common sense.

“A recent Roll Call story has also revealed a well-financed, well-coordinated ethanol smear campaign led by the GMA that is undermining and denigrating the patriotic achievements of American farmers to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, while also providing a safe and reliable food supply.”

Grassley sent a letter to several Iowa food processing companies aligned with the GMA last week, as well.

“I am personally disappointed and offended by the public relations smear campaign that the food processors and member companies of the GMA are now spearheading,” the letter read, in part. “I hope you’ll recognize that this smear campaign against biofuels is unfounded, irresponsible and pits traditional allies and partners in food production against one another.”

National Corn Growers Assoc. President Ron Litterer said in a conference call last week, “We are extremely disappointed by the lengths to which the GMA and its allies have gone in their effort to bad-mouth corn farmers and ethanol producers. It really is an attack on all of agriculture, because it asserts that farmers are no longer able to do what they have done for centuries – feed the world.”