Restaurant Owners Support Cutting Ethanol Requirement To Help Food Prices
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CHICAGO (CBS) -- Restaurant owners in Chicago say the federal government needs to help stop the rising cost of food.
The price we all pay at the store for things like beef and eggs is going up. Restaurant owners have to pay more too.
The reason -- part of it, anyway -- is the rising cost of corn, a staple in animal feed. There's less corn for feed, because a lot of corn is used to manufacture ethanol.
The EPA has proposed reducing the amount of ethanol that's mixed into fuel, and that proposal is supported by Chicago restaurant owners like Dave Samber, who owns Polo Café in Bridgeport.
Right now, he said, restaurants are suffering - paying high prices for food.
"How do you pass these huge product increases on to your customers? You don't," he said.
If you did, customers might disappear.
U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) is against the EPA's plan to reduce biofuels.
Samber said he'd be happy to talk to the senator about the measure.
"I don't follow his thinking on this matter. I just know there seems to be a better way to do this," Samber said.
