Oct. 16 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said he is pushing the Environmental Protection Agency to raise the amount of ethanol allowed in gasoline as the deadline for a decision nears.

Science indicates that a higher “blend wall” is safe for automobile engines, Vilsack said yesterday in an interview at a conference on global hunger in Des Moines, Iowa. Increasing production of ethanol, made from corn in the U.S., would also meet national goals of energy independence and aid the industry as it attempts to expand.

“We will continue to publicly advocate an increase, and privately advocate,” Vilsack said. “Our hope is they understand the significance of this decision as it relates to the future of the industry.”

The U.S. biofuels industry is challenged by infrastructure limitations and a government-imposed limit, called a blend wall, that restricts to 10.2 percent the amount of ethanol that can be mixed with gasoline, the Government Accountability Office said this month in a report.

An industry request to increase the ratio to 15 percent has encountered resistance from General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co. The automakers say greater biofuels content may hurt engine performance and increase corrosion. The EPA has delayed a ruling on the request until December.

Antitrust Complaints

On another topic, Vilsack said that antitrust complaints raised against large agribusiness companies are partly a sign of difficult economic times.

“Whenever there is financial difficulty and stress, it causes you to examine every aspect of the why, how and cost of the financial stress we feel,” he said. “Lots of things are on the table that in times of plenty may not be issues.”

“When one company has a significant amount of control over a particular technology or crop, I think it’s appropriate” to ask whether market power is being wielded unfairly, he said.

Dean Foods Co., the biggest U.S. milk-products maker, and the Dairy Farmers of America cooperative were sued by a group of dairy farmers last week for allegedly operating a monopoly in the northeastern U.S. Monsanto Co., the world’s largest seed producer, the same day received questions from the Justice Department related to anti-competition complaints made by DuPont Co. in a lawsuit.

The USDA and the Justice Department in August said they would conduct a series of workshops on competition in agriculture, starting next year.

To contact the reporters on this story: Alan Bjerga in Washington at abjerga@bloomberg.net:

Last Updated: October 16, 2009 00:01 EDT