WASHINGTON National Restaurant Association officials and other food industry representatives concerned about ethanol-related food inflation joined Texas Gov. Rick Perry here Tuesday to call on the Environmental Protection Agency to approve his request for a waiver of the Renewable Fuels Standard, or RFS.
Perry, backed by the NRA and other members of the recently formed Coalition for Balanced Food and Fuel, told an audience at the National Press Club that a reduction of this year's RFS mandate would ease skyrocketing corn prices that have hurt his state's livestock and poultry industries. Perry in April petitioned the EPA to cut the mandate from 9 billion to 4.5 billion gallons of ethanol blended into the nation's fuel supply.
John Gay, the NRA's senior vice president of government affairs and public policy, cited "many factors contributing to the sharp increase in wholesale food prices -- the largest in 27 years -- and very few within our control. However, we can revisit the government policies" and "must ensure that we are not forcing our needs [for] food and fuel to compete against each other."