By CELESTE BAUMGARTNER
Ohio Correspondent

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A new $2.5 million national TV advertising campaign promotes the ethanol industry and talks about how it benefits farmers and producers. Six spots are set to air on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, and Headline News. The promotion was launched by Growth Energy, an ethanol advocacy group committed to the promise of agriculture and growing America’s economy through cleaner, greener energy. Its members recognize that America needs a new ethanol approach.

“It’s all about getting the word out so the average American understands the benefits that ethanol is having and can continue to have,” said Mark Borer, president, Ohio Ethanol Producers Assoc. Viewers may have misconceptions about ethanol because the competition has clouded the truths, Borer said.

“Ethanol is currently having such tremendous impact in the United States,” Borer said. “We’re currently producing just under 1 billion gallons per year, which is actually a larger percentage of the fuel supply in North America than any other country with the exception of Canada and we’re catching them too.”

“This means jobs. Producing ethanol helps the farmer,” he said. “It gives the farmers a market for their corn, to give them a more competitive marketplace. From the environmental standpoint it burns 59 percent cleaner than gasoline does when it is consumed.”
It is important to get the truth out about ethanol and to educate people because those truths are positive.

Some of the negatives people have heard include the idea that ethanol production means food versus fuel.

“The fact of the matter is that the farmers are growing more corn on the same amount of acreage,” Borer said. “Last year, the farmers had a record crop – we’ve got more than ample growing stocks of corn.”

Another inaccurate idea is that of indirect land usage; that as the use of corn for ethanol increases, other countries, such as Brazil, are razing the land including rain forests so they can grow more corn. That is inaccurate, Borer said. “Just as quickly as the use ethanol has grown, the deforestation has decreased,” he said.
It comes down to the economy, the economic benefits from becoming energy independent, Borer said.

“We don’t have to send our jobs and our money overseas,” Borer said. “That is the primary focus.”