(1888PressRelease)
June 19, 2007 - $10 PER LITER OF BEER? ETHANOL DRIVES UP PRICES.
San Francisco, California - Would you pay $10 a liter for beer? You may pay significantly more than a gallon of gasoline at the world-renowned Octoberfest in Germany this year if farmers continue to shift production from barley to corn to produce cheaper ethanol, announced Stephan Zimmermann, retired professor of economics ay Webster University and industrial researcher and analyst.
Zimmermann recently completed a study of the domestic and international beer market, citing the “ethanol craze” as one of the prime factors of the increase in beer prices. Recent hikes in German premium beers in the export market to the U.S. topped more than thirty percent as barley malt price more than doubled in two years..
“While ethanol may well be an additive, if not an outright substitute for fossil fuels, it is not going to solve the crisis,” Zimmermann stated in a recent interview. “Neither is the rapid shift from barley to corn.”
“World leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, an avowed greenhouse gas opponent, nonetheless opposed setting speed limits on Germany’s famed Autobahn,” said Zimmermann, noting that such inconsistencies add to the problem of vehicular emissions.
He has often been cited as an advocate of higher American gasoline prices to match those of the rest of the industrialized world.
The copyrighted article was released to beer media publications today, and is available directly from the author. Zimmermann, currently overseas, is continuing his studies of alternative fuels.
CONTACT
Stephan Zimmermann
SZTRILLIUM ( @ ) AOL dot COM
or
Alvarado Partners
555 Montgomery Street, Suite 603
San Francisco, CA 94111
(415) 398-1366
