America’s growing appetite for ethanol fuel derived from corn is having a ripple effect on prices for everything from beer to pizza, chocolate to ice cream, and pasta to cheese, experts said.
Growing corn for ethanol production has been encouraged through government subsidies. Milk and items that contain milk products have increased in price partly because the price of corn feed has gone up about 73 percent over the past 12 months, according to Ephraim Leibtag, an economist for the Economic Research Service, a branch of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
While energy prices have also been high in the past few years, the corn price increase this year has had a bigger impact on commodity prices, Leibtag said.
Farmers have passed some of those costs along to producers and manufacturers.
Ice cream shops have seen an increase in the price of milk by 15 to 20 percent over the last six to eight months, according to Neal Lieberman, owner of Silver Spring-based Giffords Ice Cream & Candy Co.
Lieberman said he hasn’t had to increase his prices yet, but he might have to consider it if the trend continues.
He has heard discussion of the link to ethanol. His cream supplier in Pennsylvania recently informed him that feed costs for his cattle were up 15 percent, raising the specter of higher ice cream prices for consumers in the near future.
Chocolate retailers have also noticed an increase in the cost of cream, according to Jason Andelman, owner of Artisan Confections in Arlington.
And cheese prices have rocketed by at least 30 percent in the past two months, said Jeff Brick, owner of Brick’s Pizza in Arlington.
Pizza’s companion, a cold beer, has also been affected by higher raw materials prices.
Geoff Lively, head brewer of Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery in Bethesda, said the average cost of all grains, perhaps driven as much by energy costs as shifts in grain production, has gone up more than 10 percent in the past year.
He’s had to increase the price of beer pints from $4.09 to $4.19.
Pasta, another staple, has not gone untouched. The price of wheat has gone up about 10 percent in roughly the last six weeks, said Frank Velleggia, owner of Casa Di Pasta Inc., a pasta manufacturer based in Baltimore.
