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Importance of ethanol growth stressed at hearing

Several of the farmers who testified at Tuesday’s farm bill hearing in Sioux Falls stressed the importance of a growing ethanol market to Midwest corn growers.  One of them was Rod Gangwish of Shelton, Nebraska, a former president of the National Corn Growers Association.

“The topic of the extension of the tax incentive for ethanol—the flexible fuel vehicle requirements—and the increase in the blending of ethanol from E10 to E15—do not fit within the parameters of the farm bill,” Gangwish said, “but they are significantly related to the profitability of my business.”

 House Ag Committee member Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin of South Dakota says that ethanol has played a big role in reduced farm program spending. “The VEETC and the blend wall—while they may be outside of the parameters of the farm bill—we know how important having an additional market in biofuels has been to reducing the amount of payments that we’ve made to corn growers and other producers in the commodity title,” she said.

Evidenced by the fact, said Herseth-Sandlin, that there have been zero payments made to corn producers under the LDP and counter-cyclical payment programs for the past three years.

AUDIO: Comments from Herseth-Sandlin and Gangwish (2:30 MP3)