Farmers fear rising corn prices

In February 2007, U.S. Rep. Kenny Hulshof met with the leaders of Missouri's largest conservation groups worried the ethanol boom would pressure farmers to use more land for corn production.

They feared rising corn prices would cause the government to release grasslands in conservation programs for growing more corn for fuel.

"My family grows corn. So the idea of high corn prices is appealing to me," Hulshof is quoted as telling the conservationists in a spring 2007 article in the Missouri Prairie Journal magazine.

Eighteen months later, Hulshof is running for governor, and the political debate in Missouri about using corn to produce energy has never been hotter.

In an interview Friday, Hulshof said his comment about high-priced corn being "appealing" to his personal interests was "completely tongue in cheek."

Now Missouri has a law mandating all gasoline be blended with 10 percent ethanol, an alcohol made from field corn.

The less than 7-month-old ethanol mandate that Hulshof defends as good for Missouri's economy is being blamed by farmers and economists for higher corn prices for feeding livestock, causing grocery store prices to increase nationwide at the fastest pace in nearly two decades.

"There's a lot of agreement that the mandate has had these unintended consequences," said state Treasurer Sarah Steelman, who opposes the ethanol mandate and is running against Hulshof in the Aug. 5 GOP primary.

In response to Hulshof's insinuation his comment was in jest, Steelman's spokesman Spence Jackson said, "anyone who reads that would come away with the impression that he was dead serious."

Steelman has recently come out against the mandate, after initially supporting it to "establish a market for renewable fuels." After hearing concerns from voters, Steelman now says ethanol is the cause of rising food prices and has done nothing to stop high gasoline prices.