Jim's comments BEFORE interview:    Earlier this week, I heard one of the best conference calls of this earnings cycle... It was the Tyson Foods Inc. (TSN) call. And I didn't just love it because of the excellent quarterly results, or what TSN's CEO, Richard Bond, said about how the business will be in the future... although, I will say that Bond and TSN have done fabulously in an environment that's been absolutely brutal... the essence of purgatory for companies that make chicken wings and beef...

TSN is the largest processor of chicken and pork and beef, selling meats and prepared foods... It's so exposed to the enormous costs of inflation in everything food. The fact that TSN beat the Street's expectations, even during such a rough environment, speaks volumes about the strength of this company, and its leader.

Bond did remarkable things this quarter, but that's not what made his conference call really special...

I think this man's a hero... a real hero... and what he did with TSN deserves praise...

The company managed to limit losses on chicken products by hedging. It continued to cut costs and manage margins by doing things like moving 10% of its chicken production to big-bird de-boning... It's really just a high-margin chicken market...

Okay, I've danced it around it enough... That's not why I'm having him on my show...

The TSN call was special... unique... because Bond used it to tell the darn truth... He used it to tell the truth about ethanol...

Mr. Bond... This TSN CEO will not let mankind be crucified on a cross of ethanol... And Bond's got credibility. He didn't miss the numbers, and then use ethanol as an excuse. He's a winner, not a winer... He's got a right to speak up on this issue, more than any of us...

Let me just read you some of what he said, because I don't know how I can put it any better...

"It's going to get much worse if we continue down this path of diverting corn to ethanol production. Higher food costs is one of the many unintended consequences of the corn-based ethanol mandates and subsidies the U.S. Government put in place in 2007."

Now, I don't even want to know what much worse looks like... Bond also had some great numbers about how inefficient making ethanol is... quite contrary from everything I've heard from the ag industry... Here he says, "2007 ethanol production replaced only 3% of U.S. oil imports. The fact is, we can't grow enough corn in this country to make a dent in our petroleum dependency. It takes a bushel of corn to produce 2.75 gallons of ethanol." Come on!... He goes on to say the government mandates the use of 9 billion gallons of ethanol in 2008. That will take 3.2 billion bushels of corn... close to 30% of the most important crop we produce... for food.

So, we're using 30% of our corn to replace 3% of our oil?...

Does that seem stupid to you? It does to me...

Now here's the best part of Bond's indictment of ethanol... He says it's inefficient, because it raises the price on feed stocks to artificially high levels, which costs for other uses, such as food... He says it's inequitable, because higher food costs disproportionately affect you... affect the people who can least afford it... It's essentially, he says, a regressive tax on the poor. And not only the poor in America... Ethanol mandates and subsidies, along tariffs on ethanol imports, are causing a world food shortage... a world food crisis!

Shortages and higher prices mean many people around the world are spending the majority, or all, of their income on food. He says those who can't are starving! The number of people suffering from hunger had been predicted to decline from 800 million to 625 million, by 2025 but, because of the ethanol madness, it's now expected to climb to 1.2 billion. I guess we should be real proud...

All right, I am thrilled, I am proud and I am just ecstatic to have the man who's the first guy that I have heard to tell the truth about this issue. Let's talk to Richard Bond, the CEO of TSN, and an anti-ethanol crusader...

Mr. Bond, how did you have the guts to tell the truth about an issue that people have consistently not truth on, on my show, and every other venue?...

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Jim's comments AFTER interview:    Richard Bond is doing an unbelievable thing... he's telling the truth, and he's making money for shareholders... You know what? He's giving you a two-fer. I'm in his camp. I'm for Tyson Foods Inc. (TSN). I'm actually also for the idea that hunger is bad...