Bill would add food aid, give ethanol, livestock loss relief - Roll Call

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Biofuel producers, particularly ethanol makers, would get an economic lifeline with a proposal to pay 45 cents a gallon to qualifying fuel produced between Jan. 1 and May 1. The renewable fuels industry has been battered as demand for transportation fuels sharply declined because millions of people remained home rather than commuting to work. The decline in demand sent a ripple through parts of the Midwest where a third of corn production goes into ethanol.

Zippy Duvall, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, said ethanol plants have idled or closed, weakening local economies.

“Ethanol is a big part of rural America. Now those plants are closing down. That’s going to affect corn prices. Corn is really facing a difficult time,” Duvall said, noting that corn farmers also may lose animal feed sales as livestock producers reduce their herds. He spoke at a Bipartisan Policy Center session on the U.S. food supply chain.

House Democrats included the agriculture and food provisions as they try to address economic disruptions that worsened conditions for many farmers already coping with nearly six years of low market prices and two years of trade conflict between the U.S. and China, the European Union and other trading partners.

The rapid increase in unemployment from 3.5 percent in February to 14.7 percent in April means more people in need and increased demand at food banks and for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps.

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