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NEWS
MARCH 3, 2011 | WWW.PRODUCER.COM | THE WESTERN PRODUCER
RENEWABLE FUEL | GOVERNMENT INTENTIONS QUESTIONED
Biofuel policy called just another farm subsidy Green party opposes policy | Leader says later generations of biofuel will help environment, but for now there is no benefit BARRY WILSON OTTAWA BUREAU
The Conservative government calls its biofuel policy an environmental initiative, but Green party leader Elizabeth May isn’t buying it. “As it now stands, it’s a policy to provide an additional subsidized base to canola and corn and it’s an agricultural policy,” she said. “The driver really isn’t reducing greenhouse gases.” May said Green party analysis, along with that of many other environmen-
talists, is that farm crop-based biofuel production produces more greenhouse gas emissions than it removes when emissions from planting, harvesting, transportation and processing are taken into account. “Our objection is primarily that it fails to reduce greenhouse gases on a life-cycle basis,” she said. Using agricultural products to produce fuel also affects world food supplies, although May said it is an oversimplification to argue that biofuel caused the world food crisis in poor and hungry nations.
ELIZABETH MAY GREEN PARTY
“It clearly is much more complex than that and includes the fact that you have climate crisis, extreme
weather events and manipulation of markets.” May said later generations of biofuel that use waste products and cellulosic feedstocks will be a real environmental policy, but that is not the case now. “Corn-based ethanol is, we think, a disguised subsidy to large scale production of corn with the potential of distorting global food markets,” she said. “But if you were to take the corn husks off the field to make cellulosic ethanol, we think that’s a pretty green access=subscriber section=news,crops,none
Victory without the fight.
solution, so switch grass and cellulosic ethanol will be a good solution.” Making biodiesel out of waste french fry oil or stale-dated margarine would also be environmentally meaningful. Federal agriculture minister Gerry Ritz and environment minister Peter Kent recently announced a regulatory requirement that biodiesel and home heating oil will require an average minimum of two percent biodiesel. They sold it as part of the government’s greenhouse gas reduction commitment and said it could come into effect July 1. Ritz also said it was aimed at helping farmers. “The new renewable fuel content in biodiesel and heating oil will give our farmers another market for their crops and demonstrates how agriculture can contribute to reducing Canada’s environmental footprint,” he said in the government announcement.
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ConAgra vows fast action on price increases BOCA RATON, Fla. (Reuters) — When it comes to raising prices, ConAgra Foods Inc. chief executive officer Gary Rodin said this time will be different. Rodin, who admitted three years ago that ConAgra was late to raise prices to offset rising commodity costs, said the company has already raised prices on more than half of its portfolio in the wake of the latest spike in commodity costs. He said there could be more increases. Raising prices was the only responsible way to handle the recent spike in the cost of wheat, oil and other commodities that has pinched profit margins for nearly all food companies. “There’s only so much you can cover with savings and productivity,” Rodin said. He noted however that savings and productivity would cover a sizable portion of the inflation, which has driven up its costs for grains, meat, cooking oils, packaging and fuel. Even though price increases may hurt sales volume by about a percentage point, as budget-conscious consumers get turned off, Rodin said ConAgra is willing to make the tradeoff to preserve margins. ConAgra expects commodity costs to rise by at least five percent this year, and about seven percent in fiscal 2012. In 2007 and 2008, ingredient costs also spiked, but ConAgra was slow to raise prices, due in part to product recalls of its Peter Pan peanut butter and Banquet potpies due to salmonella contamination. “We’ve learned some lessons,” Rodin said. “We have stronger muscles built now on pricing…. We’re doing it more in real time than several years ago.” access=subscriber section=news,none,none