This is another post about how the media is all too willing to place the blame on ethanol without even checking the facts.

An article in the news talks about how the price of bird seed has gone up and points the blame at ethanol.

Another factor driving the price of sunflower seeds up over the past few years has been farmers planting less sunflowers as many planted more corn instead to reap government dollars during the ethanol boom, Willard said.

A check of the data at the USDA shows that this assumption is incorrect.

Sunflower Seed Acres Planted

2008 - 2,516,500 acres
2007 - 2,070,000 acres
2006 - 1,950,000 acres

Somebody needs to clue reports in on the fact that just because something has gone up in price doesn't always mean that it lost acres to corn production.

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