Mr. Speaker, in his speech, my friend mentioned the issue of biofuels and how that affects agriculture and food prices.
I would like to submit, both for him and for many Canadians, the tremendous good that biofuels will do for not only our farming community but for our environment and for other industries in Canada.
I do not know if many people are aware that in 2007 food prices increased by 4%. While we want to have reasonably priced food, it should not be at the expense of our farming community. I bring that 4% up because oil prices in the past year have jumped nearly 100%. At the same time, the U.S. produced a record amount of ethanol from corn. The U.S. increased its surplus of corn to more than 1.4 billion bushels, and that was in a record ethanol year.
We need to know that farm marketing costs now account for about 80% of the total cost of food. Marketing costs are different between farm value and consumer spending for food at grocery stores and restaurants.
The other evening I was speaking to some folks in the automobile industry when one of the fellows said that what the government was doing with regard to ethanol and the amount of corn and other farm produce going into ethanol, will double the price of breakfast cornflakes. For those who think it will, corn amounts to less than 5% of a box of cornflakes.
I think folks need to realize that ethanol and biodiesel will be of great benefit to our farmers, not a negative, and they will be of benefit to all Canadians.