The incredible disconnect – Iowa political establishment and Ukraine fallout

Children of the (lack of) corn

Will it be:

~~ “Damn the food crisis and full speed ahead with corn in your tank”~~

Given the emergency situation created by grain disruptions due to the war in Ukraine, for humanity’s sake Republicans should take the lead in their own states and prioritize food production in policies and through moral suasion

We should ask of the politicians in this state — are they out to protect ethanol or people? Farmers would be happy with the latter and should receive market prices for supplying their products to feed people efficiently.

It is crisis time. All marketing mandates, promotions and favored tax treatments for ethanol use as an automotive fuel should be ended.

Whether it is Joni Ernst or Charles Grassley or most other Republican personages in/from this state — they make political hay of late about food inflation and security — rightly decrying Biden’s various inflationary edicts and pointing out the effects of the war in/on Ukraine as necessitating our aggressive support of Ukraine in order to stabilize food prices.

But ruminate on this letter from Joni Ernst (along with the other links provided) while trying to digest her and her fellow Iowans insistence that ethanol “market mandates” be instituted for ethanol’s use as motor fuel.

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“This is a food security crisis.”

Dear Friend –

As Vladimir Putin continues his bloody, lawless war on Ukraine, one thing is becoming clearer every day: his war is causing a global food security crisis .

Approximately 400 million people around the world are dependent on Ukraine and Russia for food, and that production this year will drop 40-45% in Ukraine because of the war. Russia is using food as a ‘quiet weapon’ and is targeting agriculture in Ukraine.

Click here or on the image above to see Fox News’ coverage of my comments on how Russia is using food as a ‘quiet weapon’ in their war.

This week, I joined fellow member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, Senator Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), in hosting members of Ukrainian Civil Society, Dr. Hanna Hopko, Daria Kaleniuk, and Maria Berlinska, for a discussion about Russia’s war in Ukraine and what it means for global food security and agriculture.

Click here or on the image above to watch KCCI’s coverage of the panel I hosted on the war in Ukraine and its impact on agriculture.

The best and quickest way to address the food security crisis is for Ukraine to win the war, and they can win this war if the United States and our allies get them the support they need.

V’PAC note not part of Ernst communication — The Ukraine war is only part of the food inflation problem and it looks more and more like the quickest way to address food security is to end ethanol for fuel incentives and mandates. Ernst communication continues:

I also joined Maria Bartiromo on Fox Business this week, along with Ukrainian Civil Society member Dr. Hanna Hopko, to talk about this crisis:

Click here or on the image above to watch my interview with Fox Business.

To see more coverage of our panel this week and the global food security crisis from Putin’s war, click HERE .

The disconnect is their promoting ethanol marketing requirements instead of calling for farm acreage to be used for food instead of wasteful ethanol production to be burned in cars.

For humanity’s sake they should be calling on farm policy if anything to incentivize food production and disincentivize inefficient ethanol production. That should “incentivize” Biden’s people to open up domestic oil production.

If ethanol for fuel is so wonderful let the market pay the true cost based on zero subsidies or mandates of any sort. People know what is good for them.

Farmers should use the power of their ‘victory gardens’ by favoring those grain dealers who favor their products for food/feed production or limit their auctions or supply contracts to food production. Because of the current emergency farmers and grain merchants should be empowered to void those contracts already issued to ethanol manufacturers focused on internal combustion engine fuel mixtures.

The articles below go back five to ten years or more decrying the use of ethanol for fuel as not green and a boondoggle, an inefficient way to produce fuel and or cattle feed. The pictures above where clipped from some of these articles.

https://news.algaeworld.org/2016/08/blunder-biofuel-mandate/

https://oilfreefun.blogspot.com/2012/09/forget-fearing-big-bad-wolf-so-called.html

https://dailytorch.com/2012/10/decency-demands-an-end-to-all-ethanol-fuel-requirements-now/