1/7/08 Promoting Ethanol

Promoting Ethanol. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. Ethanol has been a hot topic for the last several months and with oil prices bouncing off the $100 mark you can bet it will continue to be talked about. Late last year, the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council was given quite a distinction and the Marketing Director for EPIC, Reese Nanfito says they are very excited. NANFITO: We were named Product of the Year by AgriMarketing magazine so ethanol and work that EPIC has done has been recognized right up with Syngenta and John Deere and some of the winners of the past so we're very excited about that. It's an acknowledgement of how important ethanol is in the ag industry and the impact that it's made and it also shines a light on some of the work that EPIC has done to promote ethanol among consumers nationwide to increase demand for the product. There are a number of detractors out there blaming ethanol production on higher corn prices and other higher input costs. Nanfito says most people just aren't buying that argument. NANFITO: We actually have some research back that addresses that and here's the interesting thing; although that agenda  the food versus fuel debate is being pushed by a lot of people when you look at the numbers and we just got national research back that shows that only 19% of Americans really think that ethanol has any impact on the food supply. So what that tells you is the American public is not buying that argument. They don't believe it. In fact he says the figures show the opposite. NANFITO: The same American public is saying that 80% of people believe that the U.S. is too dependant on foreign sources of oil and 80% of people think that the U.S. government should be doing more to make clean, renewable sources of energy available so we need to get that message out that the American public really wants these renewable fuel options so that they can make that choice at the pump. The biggest issue right now is availability and recognition of ethanol nationwide. NANFITO: We are working not only on the availability of ethanol but beyond that we want to make consumers also when they go up to the pump, we want to show them where ethanol is available and give them some good information about how they can use E10 in any of today's cars. Without any issues what so ever and how they may want to consider a FlexFuel vehicle next time they buy a car. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.