by David Sassoon -
Mar 19th, 2008 
The price of corn reached a record $5.795 a bushel last week in Chicago as a result of U.S. mandates promoting ethanol production. That has pushed the price of feed for its chickens too high for Pilgrim's Pride Corp., the world's biggest poultry processor, which announced last week it would close a chicken plant in Siler City, North Carolina as a result.
The company is also going to close six of the company's 13 U.S. distribution centers in Oskaloosa, Iowa; Plant City and Pompano Beach, Florida; Jackson, Mississippi; Nashville, Tennessee; and Cincinnati.
In announcing the closings and the loss of 1300 jobs, the company blamed U.S. ethanol policies for pushing the industry into crisis. Feed represents about half the cost of raising a bird.
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