Today, Growth Energy released the following statement calling on the U.S. Congress to investigate why food prices continue to increase, even while the price of all other commodities have dropped considerably over the past six months. In fact, in the new Consumer Price Index released today, the price of cereals and bakery products was one of the only food groups to post a price increase in the past month, rising 0.3 percent in December and 11.7 percent over the past 12 months. Meanwhile the price of other foods that require grains, like meats, poultry, and eggs declined by 0.5 percent in December.
Growth Energy has been calling on the members of the GMA to lower its prices for consumers since corn and energy prices have dropped significantly or admit that they ran a deceptive campaign blaming ethanol for the hike in food prices last year. You can see the countdown clock that Growth Energy launched to track the hours and days elapsed since the group called on Big Food to lower prices for consumers at GrowthEnergy.org. The statement is below:
“The Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) needs to come clean about high food prices. Now that the deceptive campaign against ethanol and American farmers has been revealed, they no longer have a scapegoat for their sky high prices. By forcing the leaders of big food companies to be sworn under oath in front of Congress, we can finally, get to the truth.
“Today, despite the fact that corn prices have dropped by 50 percent and oil prices continue to be significantly lower, food prices remain high, proving what experts knew all along – that ethanol production has little to do with food prices.
“And yet for months, food manufacturers have been saying that food prices will eventually come down. American consumers have been waiting and yet these companies seem to only be concerned about their profits. That’s unfortunate given the tough economic times many American families face today.”