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Chicken Little
Maybe he was right and the sky really is falling, after all

Pilgrim’s Pride Corporation Senior Chairman Lonnie “Bo” Pilgrim issued the following statement recently in support of Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency requesting a 50 percent waiver of the renewable fuels standard:

“I am proud to support Gov. Perry in his request for a 50 percent waiver of the renewable fuel standard. Soaring feed-ingredient costs fueled by the federal government’s ethanol mandate has created a crisis in our industry, the true effects of which are only just now beginning to be felt by consumers in Texas and other states in the form of higher food prices. These unprecedented increases for corn and soybean meal are expected to add billions of dollars of cost to our industry this year. We applaud Gov. Perry for his leadership on this critical issue and encourage other leaders in the public and private sectors to join in support.”

What’s interesting about this development is that the legendary co-founder of the Pittsburg-based, largest chicken company in the U.S. has also in the past been a staunch and unswervingly loyal supporter of President George W. Bush going back to the latter’s days as governor of Texas. It is President Bush who has been among the most enthusiastic backers of the ethanol mandate as a way to reduce reliance on foreign imports of crude oil and gasoline.

The energy bill passed by Congress and signed by Bush in December calls for refiners to replace 36 billion gallons of gasoline with ethanol by 2020, up from about 7 billion gallons today. About half of that will come from ethanol made with corn.

“That’s good if you’re a corn farmer, and it’s good if you’re concerned with national security,” Bush said. Surely President Bush didn’t mean to damage his longtime ally and benefactor in this manner.

This is a classic case of the law of unintended consequences in action.

The chickens are coming home to roost, but their owners can no longer afford to feed them. And this definition from thefreedictionary.com may have to be revised:

chicken feed

n. Slang

A trifling amount of money.