The nation's largest food companies, all members of the trade group the Grocery Manufacturers of America (GMA), were recently exposed for funding a public relations smear campaign to blame biofuels for rising food costs. Now, a new analysis by FoodPriceTruth.org reveals that the corporate profits of these same giant food companies have soared over the past 12 months as much as 121% in the case of the Campbell Soup Company.

In fact, many of these companies are openly crediting their increase in food prices for their bulging profit margins!

"Food corporations would rather spend millions of dollars on an ethanol smear campaign than explain to consumers why their food prices are so high," said Brooke Coleman, a FoodPriceTruth.org spokesperson and founder of the New Fuels Alliance. "Blaming biofuels for high food-prices is a great trick for these large food corporations. They get to raise their prices, increase their profits and not worry about how it affects American families struggling to make ends meet."

According to the companies' own press releases:

- Kellogg's Q2 net earnings (30 July) were $312 million, a 4% increase over last year's. Kellogg's stated in their own press release that: "Results were driven by strong execution, innovation and price realization..."

- Sara Lee, which earned $242 million in the Q3 of fiscal 2008, $150 million more than the same quarter last year - which is an increase of 61.2% - also attributed higher profits to raising their prices. From their press release announcing their Q3 profits: "Net sales up 10.5%, driven by higher unit volumes, price increases and the strong euro..."

- Dean Foods, another company with a healthy Q2 net income of $48.9 million, compared with $28.2 million in the prior year's second quarter, stated in their press release: "The sales increase in the quarter was due primarily to the pass through of higher overall dairy commodity costs to customers and higher sales volumes."

In other words, commodity prices went up and Dean Foods passed those costs onto consumers at a level allowing them to earn 71.63% more than they did in Q2 in 2007. "Customers aren't just paying for commodity price increases, they are also paying a tax added on by the food companies because they think they can get away with it," added Coleman.

Just yesterday, the US Department of Agriculture reported that "ideal" weather conditions in the Midwest have helped farmers to recover from the spring floods. This means lower commodity prices for corn, soy-beans and wheat. "We will see lower commodity prices, but will the food companies cut their prices to reflect those changes? I wouldn't hold my breath," said Coleman.

Not only are biofuels not responsible for rising food prices, biofuels help keep food prices down. This is because the single biggest factor impacting food prices is the price of gasoline and ethanol helps keep down the price of gasoline by as much as 15% according to a Merrill Lynch analyst. "When the average chicken sold in the US travels 1500 miles to the market, it is no wonder why gasoline prices dramatically affect food prices," said Coleman.