In former Sen. Rick Santorum’s recent piece, “Stop the attacks on farmers, homegrown energy,” he claims the Renewable Fuel Standard is an economic saving grace. The Senator says that farmer income is projected to fall this year to the lowest level recorded since 2006, but he ignores the fact that the RFS — which has also been operating for the past 12 years — is a contributor to this decline.
Starting in 2005, the artificial demand created by the RFS biofuel mandate caused corn and soybean prices to temporarily soar. In response to those temporary high prices, and to meet federal government ethanol targets, farmers converted about 16 million acres of wheat, sorghum and other crops to corn and soybean production. Functioning as a corn production mandate, the RFS has radically transformed the agricultural landscape in America — particularly in the Midwest.
