If you’re a subscriber to the Detroit Free Press or News, you’ll see a full-page ad from the Michigan Corn Growers Association. The ad reads, “EPA Waivers Siphon Money from Family Farmers to Big Oil Companies.”
Matt Frostic, president of MCGA, said the ad was important to get the message out to the general public to defend the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).
“The RFS is something we’ve had over 10 years, and it’s given us the ability to have market access into the energy world,” said Frostic. “It’s good for our industries—from a stability standpoint—and for the consumer because it creates a choice of what kind of gas we want to use. Obviously, we’re going to use the cheapest product we can and still sustain things.”
The goal of the ad is for the non-ag public to understand some of the issues corn growers have been facing, and how the dollars transfer from one industry to another.
“We felt we needed to get our voice our there and talk about this and get people understanding where we come from,” said Frostic.
Frostic said this was also timed to coincide with the deadline of the final comment period to the EPA about modifications to the RFS.
“The timing is obviously from a political standpoint—we want to understand who’s on what side of this issue, what the EPA has been doing to our industry, more so what politicians can do to correct the issues at hand with the RFS,” he said. “This is to try and put pressure on the EPA to do the right thing—to do what the laws [that were] created 10 years ago to do. We’re just asking for follow through.”
Frostic urges everyone who supports ethanol to write a letter or visit micorn.org before the comment period deadline on November 29.
