The Senate Agriculture Committee is scheduling a hearing in Omaha next month to discuss ethanol's effect on corn and food prices and examine the heated debate surrounding the biofuel.

Sen. Ben Nelson said Wednesday during a telephone news conference that ethanol has unfairly been demonized by grocery associations, cattle organizations and others as the main cause for higher food prices and higher corn prices, which have ebbed in the past month.

Defenders of ethanol say its production has contributed only a little to the rise in food prices and that the meteoric rise in oil prices is the biggest culprit.

But Nelson said the Aug. 18 event will not be a pro-ethanol hearing. He said it will be "a pro-fact hearing."