Domestic and International Support for Sugar Policy

If Congress falls for what a Michigan sugarbeet, corn, soybean and wheat grower calls a steady diet of inaccuracies - the impact to the economy could be huge. The Coalition for Sugar Reform is lobbying for the elimination of sugar policy. Grower Clay Crumbaugh says this would displace more than 12-thousand local workers and leave the nation dependent on foreign sugar. According to the Coalition - repealing the no-cost sugar policy would mean a break for grocery shoppers as U.S. sugar prices would fall. But Crumbaugh says sugar prices have been falling - nearly 20-percent since the summer of 2010 - but grocery shoppers are paying more for sweetened products and members of the Coalition for Sugar Reform are padding their profits.

According to Crumbaugh - this is nothing new. He says wholesale sugar prices were remarkably low until recently - and unchanged for three decades. Still - food prices climbed - as did food makers' revenues. Crumbaugh is hopeful lawmakers will examine the facts before making decisions about sugar policy in the upcoming farm bill. In the end - he's hoping they will vote for family farmers.

The International Sugar Trade Coalition hopes to see the no-cost sugar policy continued in the next farm bill as well. They praised the Senate Agriculture Committee for continuing the policy in its farm bill. In a letter sent this week - the coalition noted U.S. sugar policy is important to sugar producers in developing nations because it provides a guaranteed level of access to the U.S. sugar market at fair, predictable prices.

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