Sugar barons mad at smirk

[donsu]

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=reutersEdge&storyID=8555642

Big sugar takes on Bush govt in trade pact row

America's sugar industry is taking on the U.S. government in a fight over a trade pact with central America -- and the betting is that the Bush administration will blink first.

Sugar, with its massive lobbying power, is not quite David taking on Goliath. But it is one of the smaller corners of U.S. agriculture, forecast to generate $4 billion in cash receipts against $222 billion for the farm industry overall in 2005.

-snip-

"We see it as a life and death issue," said Jack Roney, policy director at the American Sugar Alliance (ASA). "Every ton of CAFTA sugar that we're forced to import is one ton less we can produce. We are already holding half a million tons off the market and storing it at our expense."

-snip-

The world price of sugar ended at 8.5 cents per pound on Thursday. The U.S. sugar price was 22 cents. "The tariff equivalent now of the quota barriers is 160 percent," Hufbauer said, versus an average U.S. agricultural tariff of 3 percent.
-snip-
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yeah, and we are buying it at "our expense".

guess the sugar barons should give smirk more money.

[jim3775]

1. "In America,

first you get the sugar, then you get the power, then you get
the women" -Homer Simpson

[undergroundpanther]

2. May the sugar lobby DIE

We need them to quit strong arming non chemical safer sweetener alternatives

like stevia.


I wish these big companies would be FORCED to tell all about the harm their products cause to people,to other nations. Sugars history reads like the stories about blood diamonds.

I wish I could legally sweeten sodas and teas with Stevia and crush BOTH corrupt markets!
Failure for the big corporate is the best future for US.

[aden_nak]

4. Hell, I'd be happy if they'd just sweeten things WITH sugar.

This High Fructose Corn Syrup stuff is killing me. Killing us all, really.

[LiberallyInclined]

6. yep- get rid of hfcs...

grow some industrial hemp instead of all that freakin' corn.

[DURHAM D]

3. In the 2000 fight in Florida the attorney for Katherine Harris

(the state) was provided and paid for by Jose Fanjul - biggest sugar grower in the country. Not surprised he is a little angry.

[Coexist]

5. I know - Big Sugar is obnoxious in Florida

[5thGenDemocrat]

7. They just shut the sugar (beet) plant at Carrollton (MI) down

It has been a Saginaw Valley staple since 1902 or so. Employed 100 people year-round and several hundred during the seasonal run.
Gone just like that.
I'm not so concerned about the "sugar barons." But I do worry about Mike and Terry and Mouse and the other folks I know personally who just lost their jobs -- some after 15 or 20 years or more at the plant.
John
It is now 25 days, 22 hours and 11 minutes to FUNDAY. We all need a stiff drink after the past four years of this crap.