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Agribusiness group weighs in on the food-vs.-fuel debate

The group of companies maintains that technology can ease global supply shortages.

Last update: July 25, 2008 - 12:14 AM

CHICAGO - A group of U.S. agribusiness companies led by Archer Daniels Midland Co. launched a new front in the intensifying food-vs.-fuel debate Thursday, maintaining that technology can ease global supply shortages.

ADM, backed by seedmakers Monsanto Co. and DuPont Co., as well as Deere & Co., made their call through a new lobbying organization called the Alliance for Abundant Food and Energy.

It marks a sharp divide in the U.S. agribusiness sector over food and energy policy, notably subsidies for ethanol and other renewable fuels.

Members of the alliance -- which does not include Minnetonka-based Cargill Inc. -- argue that technological improvements would boost crop yields and prevent demand by renewable fuels from reducing food supplies.

This view is fiercely opposed by food companies such as Tyson Foods Inc., which has called for U.S. ethanol subsidies to be dropped.

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