The other day, Corn Commentary posted an article on the link between the Grocery Manufacturers Association and the oil companies. Now, to be perfectly honest with you I haven't had much time to really dig into this further.
But for some time I have been wondering why the oil companies have gotten so interested in food prices lately. They even went as far as funding a study into what is causing food prices to rise.
Food manufacturers have for a long time been critical of ethanol, blaming it for raising food prices. But I have never seen them mention energy prices even though most economists state that energy prices have a larger effect on food prices.
Now it seems that people in other countries are starting to make the connection as well. Roberto Rodrigues, Brazil's former agriculture minister made the connection in a recent article.
As one of the coordinators of the Inter-American Ethanol Commission, Rodrigues said food and oil companies have opened dual fronts from which to attack ethanol as the reason for food inflation and shortages.
"It seems there's an orchestrated effort, led in part by the U.S. food sector and the oil industry, especially in Europe," Rodrigues said.
Anyway, just thought it was interesting that people are starting to connect the dots.
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