The National Pork Producers Council voted to support the expiration of two financial incentives for ethanol — a 51-cent-a-gallon ethanol blender's tax credit and a 54-cent-a-gallon tariff on imported ethanol.

Delegates to the National Pork Producers Council's annual meeting last week in Anaheim, Calif., voted to support the expiration of two important ethanol financial incentives.

Joy Philippi, a Nebraska hog producer who chaired the meeting as the outgoing president of the pork organization, said the delegates thoroughly debated the issue.

"This was the longest and most detailed discussion we've had for quite a long time," she said. "Our producers have strong feelings on this issue."

Philippi also testified before a House Agriculture subcommittee on Thursday. "We continue to have the jitters over the rapid expansion of the corn-based ethanol industry and the unintended consequences it is having on the U.S. livestock industry," she told the panel. "We have concerns about the availability of corn to feed our pigs."

Keith Bolin, a hog producer and corn farmer from Manlius, Ill., who is president of the American Corn Growers Association, said he disagreed with the pork delegates' vote to let the ethanol incentives lapse and he asked the NPPC to reconsider its vote.

"I was shocked to hear that an organization of pork producers wants to dismantle one of the nation's most positive incentive programs for helping America move toward energy independence," said Bolin in a statement released by the American Corn Growers. "I believe that all American farmers want to end the nation's dependence on imported oil."

The pork delegates approved several resolutions dealing with renewable fuels.

Source: DesMoinesRegister.com