Ethanol letter to the editor submitted
The Minnesota Corn Growers Association (MCGA) has responded to an inaccurate Minnesota Star Tribune piece by columnist Karen Tolkkinen that says it’s time to “rethink ethanol.” (“The time is ripe to rethink ethanol,” Sept. 1)
Ethanol has positive impacts in greater Minnesota, MCGA Government Relations Committee Chairman Richard Syverson wrote in a letter to the editor, offering well-paying jobs and a valuable market for locally grown corn. Additionally, Syverson wrote, Minnesota corn farmers have become more efficient over the past 20 years, significantly increasing yields even though acreage planted to corn has held relatively flat.
Syverson also said the subsidy trope used to denigrate corn farmers and ethanol is tired, noting how the farm safety net accounts for just 0.2% of the federal budget while helping ensure an ample food supply. He also highlighted how ethanol is actually better for human health than gasoline since it replaces aromatic compounds and reduces cancer-causing emissions, according to research from the Hormel Institute.
“Minnesota’s agriculture sector constantly strives to develop and use best management practices that help us feed and fuel the world,” he wrote. “I invite the columnist to visit with me for the real implications of corn farming and ethanol production on greater Minnesota.”
Read Syverson’s full letter to the editor here.
Leaders of two Minnesota Corn partner organizations, the Minnesota Bio-Fuels Association (MBA) and the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA), also submitted a joint letter to the editor in response to the column. MBA Executive Director Brian Werner and RFA President and CEO Geoff Cooper wrote that the column was full of myths, misinformation, and half-truths about ethanol. They said there is no “food versus fuel” conflict with ethanol and that food security—domestically and globally—has improved during the biofuels era.
Additionally, Werner and Cooper noted how the one study that calls ethanol an environmentally worse alternative to gasoline has been debunked and that reputable studies have concluded that ethanol reduces greenhouse gas emissions compared to gasoline. They also noted that carbon capture and sequestration technologies have significant potential to further reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the ethanol industry.
“Next time, we hope Tolkkinen visits with some of the 20,914 Minnesotans employed in the state’s ethanol industry,” they wrote. “They not only know the difference between field corn and sweet corn, but they also know we can simultaneously feed and fuel Minnesota with environmentally friendly ethanol and nutritious co-products.”
