Price Action Call

The American Bakers Association is maintaining pressure on the Bush administration and Congress to take action in response to rising food costs.
“Congress and the Bush administration must act now in order to stave off further increases in consumer food prices,” said Kenneth (Chip) Klosterman, president of Klosterman Baking, Cincinnati, and chairman of the ABA
“Consumers are at their breaking point. ABA strongly urges members of Congress to take action, to alleviate the increasing food cost burden on the American consumer.”
The ABA cited recent Consumer Price Index data showing food inflation of 1 per cent in June, and up 9 per cent over the past year. Historically, food inflation has been 2.5 per cent.
“Congress and the administration should take immediate action by implementing ABA’s action plan, which includes returning non-environmentally sensitive Conservation Reserve Programme acreage to production repealing detrimental food for fuel mandates,” said Robb MacKie, president and chief executive officer of the ABA.
The ABA noted that more than a year ago it submitted a request to then Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns to allow farmers a release from the Conservation Reserve Programme immediately and without penalty, up to 10 million acres.
Since then, the ABA has met about the issue on multiple occasions with Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer, White House and congressional leaders to press the matter.
“The CRP currently idles millions of acres of productive farmland,” MacKie said. “If CRP land would have been released last summer, farmers would have been able to plant additional wheat in the fall, possibly avoiding the runaway spike in wheat price in early 2008, which are contributing to today’s record consumer prices for baked foods. Congress missed the opportunity to proactively address this issue during the farm bill. Consumers cannot afford further congressional and administration inaction.”