#FakeFarmNews
Unfortunately, agriculture has been subjected to fake news for years. When we encounter “Fake Farm News,” we try to set the record straight.
Unfortunately, agriculture has been subjected to fake news for years. When we encounter “Fake Farm News,” we try to set the record straight.
We have a problem with a Chicago-based think tank, the Illinois Policy Institute, carelessly using half-truths to make its case.
Between the presidential election and the Thanksgiving holiday, it’s understandable if you missed a lot of farm-related news. So, ASA flagged a couple of recent articles that we found particularly interesting.
Ask most people to define a leader’s most important quality using just one word, and you’ll hear the word “inspirational” time and time again. No adjective better defines George Wedgworth, 88, a legend of the U.S. sugar industry who passed away earlier this week.
We are bound and determined to do our part to hold fast to what remains and fight for the strong farm policies that make homegrown food possible.
In case you missed it, there’s something far more terrifying than ancient mummies rising in Egypt this Halloween. They’ve run out of sugar and, believe it or not, it’s leading to civil unrest.
The real “sweetest day” produces record profits for the Candy industry.
America’s sugar producers may be fierce competitors in the marketplace, but they regularly join forces on important issues like defending no-cost sugar policy and promoting a global market that is free of foreign subsidies.
Big Candy has said very little publicly about their Farm Bill subsidies, far too busy complaining about a no-cost sugar policy.
The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, recently released a report demanding the elimination of farm policy, including crop insurance and the safety nets for producers of corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton, rice, dairy, sorghum, sugar, and other crops.
Summer is waning and year’s end will be here in a blink of an eye. And with it, the end of an era for America’s sugar industry, as the last sugar production facility in Hawaii officially closes.
Big Candy, which boasted about being “recession proof” between 2008 and 2010, is apparently “deflation proof” in 2016.
In case you haven’t noticed, your grocery bill should be getting smaller this year. It’s been a big money saver for some, and the “epic fall in food prices” even garnered front-page attention in the Wall Street Journal last week.
In an abrupt about-face, Brazil’s Minister of Agriculture Blairo Maggi recently condemned the kind of Brazilian subsidization that has, for decades, wrecked the world’s sugar market.
“Subsidy attracts incompetence in some areas, and doesn’t allow the sectors to succeed through competitiveness,” he was recently quoted as saying in an Aug. 25 article that appeared in SugarOnline.com.
From the International Sweetener Symposium:
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho—Grocery shoppers with a sweet tooth are paying more than double what they paid for a candy bar 10 years earlier, even though the sugar in that candy bar is cheaper today than a decade ago. That’s according to an annual survey of sweetened product prices conducted by the American Sugar Alliance (ASA).
From the International Sweetener Symposium: Coeur d’Alene, Idaho—Leaders from the U.S. and European sugar industries today agreed that no new market access commitments for sugar should be included in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (T-TIP) trade deal between the United States and the European Union (EU). “America’s sugar market is already oversupplied with unneeded…
From the International Sweetener Symposium:
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho—The U.S. Department of Commerce found Mexico’s sugar industry guilty of dumping subsidized sugar onto the U.S. market and harming American producers. But the 2014 settlement forged between the two governments to avoid retaliatory tariffs isn’t working, a United States Senator said today at the International Sweetener Symposium.
From the International Sweetener Symposium:
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho—Calling Tom Vilsack “one of the finest secretaries that agriculture has ever had,” American Sugar Alliance chairman Luther Markwart paid special tribute yesterday to the current leadership at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
“Secretary Vilsack has been very good to our industry and has always been thoughtful,” he explained at the International Sweetener Symposium. “Over the past eight years, his team has implemented two farm bills, worked to build good trade deals for agriculture, and maintained an open-door policy for producers through it all.”
From the International Sweetener Symposium:
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho—Two studies touting the importance of U.S. sugar policy took center stage today when the American Sugar Alliance released a new video about studies by professors at Texas A&M University and the University of Maryland.
From the International Sweetener Symposium:
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho – U.S. sugar prices have fallen while prices on the world market are rapidly rising, taking a key argument away from opponents of U.S. sugar policy who have long complained about not having more access to heavily subsidized foreign supplies.
From the International Sweetener Symposium:
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho — As the 33rd International Sweetener Symposium kicked off this morning, attendees received a warm welcome from Agriculture Committee leaders.
“We don’t have an economy or a middle class, for that matter, if we don’t make things or grow things. And that’s what each of you do,” Sen. Debbie Stabenow (MI), the top Democrat on the Senate Agriculture Committee, said in a video message. “America’s great sugar industry is an essential part of the rural economy and our nation’s agricultural economy.”
Govt. Handouts Total $1.7 Billion a Year and Distort Global Prices From the International Sweetener Symposium: Coeur d’Alene, Idaho — A new report released today at the International Sweetener Symposium details the estimated $1.7 billion in annual subsidies propping up India’s inefficient sugar industry. The study’s author, Antoine Meriot of Sugar Expertise, LLC, spent months…
Last week, the candy industry’s lobbying arm sent an email to select Hill offices informing lawmakers that not every state had sugar-related jobs.
Duh. That’s pretty obvious. Sugar can’t be grown in every state because of climate and soil conditions.
Each month, the USDA posts updated sugar pricing information on a website it has dryly titled “Sugar and Sweeteners Yearbook Tables.” The site itself is a bit of a labyrinth, with more than 60 tables tracking production, price, and consumption data. But if you know where to look, the site can be a wealth of information.
India’s government sets high sugar prices for its farmers, subsidizes mills to pay farmers the inflated prices, blocks competing imports, offsets farm input costs with subsidies, extends no-interest loans to cane millers, forgives many of those no-interest loans, and subsidizes exports to give its sugar producers a leg up on the world market. If you…
Talk about wanting to have your cake and eat it too.
The month of June saw the National Confectioners Association (Big Candy) and its members brag to lawmakers about the growing economic might of its industry while simultaneously trying to convince Congress that no-cost U.S. sugar policy was leading to economic hardship.
Later this week, the CATO Institute – a perennial critic of no-cost U.S. sugar policy – will host an event to applaud India’s economic reforms of the past 25 years. The event’s online flyer touts India’s “miracle economy,” which was realized after it “abandoned its traditional socialist policies and embraced economic liberalization and globalization.” Perhaps…
During debate of the 2014 Farm Bill, many ag leaders reminded farm policy detractors that farm bills were written for the bad times not the good.
Back then, commodity prices were strong, farm incomes were up, farmland values were at all-time highs, and the global demand outlook was bright. Even though farm policy was operating well under budget because of a resilient rural economy, critics didn’t understand the need for a safety net and even championed gutting farm supports, including no-cost sugar policy.
Ahhh…spring is in the air. Birds are chirping, the sun is shining, blooms are blooming, farmers are planting, and the USDA is busy releasing attaché reports.
Ok, that last one isn’t exactly a springtime staple, but it does occur like clockwork every April, and these reports often go unnoticed despite their importance.
The price that U.S. grocery stores pay for sugar peaked in 2010 after shortages hit the global market and needed imports were difficult to attract. As a result, grocery stores charged shoppers more for bagged sugar at the checkout line in order to maintain their profit margins.
But market conditions quickly changed. Foreign exporters increased production with the aid of subsidies, turning shortages into surpluses, and prices on the world and U.S. sugar markets fell rapidly. However, the price that shoppers pay didn’t follow suit. Instead, it continued to climb.
New Texas A&M Study Details Importance of Current No-Cost Policy FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 17, 2016 CONTACT: Phillip Hayes, 202-507-8303 WASHINGTON – Current legislative proposals to change U.S. sugar policy may be positioned as modest reform, but they would have dire economic consequences on U.S. sugar producers, put U.S. taxpayers on the hook, and leave…
Back in 2007, raw sugar prices on the world market averaged just shy of 10 cents per pound.
To put that figure into perspective, the global average cost of producing a pound of raw sugar was more than 17 cents.
Yes, the price was low and producers were losing money on every pound of sugar sold. But amazingly, it was up more than 10% from the 8.8 cents per pound it averaged the decade before.
It’s rare that a general business reporter with a national publication writes about the intricacies of the domestic sugar market. It’s even rarer that the resulting report is 100% spot on.
That happened this week at the Huffington Post. And instead of adding any of our own commentary, we’ll just repost their write up.
As we noted in a Sugar Beat post earlier this week, Big Candy and other producers of sugar-sweetened foods are outpacing others when it comes to economic success. Best of all, they are adding jobs – up 3% since 2009 – and expanding production right here in America.
As the appropriations season heats up, Big Candy lobbyists and other producers of sugar-containing products (SCP) are busy telling lawmakers that U.S. sugar policy is harming them financially and needs to be gutted.
Well, it turns out that’s not exactly true.
Dr. Alexander Triantis, the dean of the University of Maryland’s business school, released an in-depth study last week that detailed the economic strength of confectioners and other sugar-sweetened food producers.
For Immediate Release: April 18, 2016
Contact: Phillip Hayes, 202-507-8303
WASHINGTON – Since the current U.S. sugar policy took hold in 2008, candy companies and producers of other sugar containing products (SCP) have added jobs, increased production, and boosted profitability, according to a new study by the dean of the University of Maryland’s business school.
Dr. Alex Triantis, who prepared the report for the American Sugar Alliance (ASA), wrote: “During 2009-2014 – a period that included a U.S. economic recession and unusually high world and U.S. sugar prices – SCP industry jobs rose by 3 percent while non-sweetened-food industry jobs were flat.”
With so much going on in the world this week, chances are good that you missed a handful of important – albeit not-so-widely-read – sugar stories. So, we’ve flagged them for you and offered a little context.
The volatile world sugar market reminded us once again why it cannot be trusted to provide stable supplies. As Reuters noted in an April 1 article:
Jamaica is pretty good at growing sugar. They’ve been doing it since the 1600s, and sugar has largely fueled Jamaica’s economy ever since.
But that proud history could be coming to a bitter end, wrecked by global prices that have been grossly depressed by subsidies. Here’s how Jamaica’s sad sugar story has unfolded.
During a recent hearing to examine the health of the rural economy, House Agriculture Committee Chairman Mike Conaway (R-TX) noted that farm income has plummeted 56 percent since 2013. That, he said, represented the worst stretch since the depression of the ’30s. “In short, we have a very serious problem unfolding right now in rural…
Sugar subsidies are spinning out of control on the global stage and one country, ironically, has had enough. Mega-subsidizer Brazil said last week that it was filing an international trade case against Thailand for manipulating the world market with trade-distorting policies.
According to a Reuters article on the case:
It may be as nasty as ever out on the campaign trail, but here in Washington, things have been a little sweeter lately. That’s because dozens of sugarbeet and sugarcane farmers from across the country came calling on Congress last week. And dozens more will be in town this week to continue those meetings.
Though few outside of the Beltway pay much attention to the President’s budget every year, it is a noteworthy event inside Washington, DC.
In honor of Valentine’s Day, a couple of sugar policy critics penned a hateful article for the Wall Street Journal that spewed the same old erroneous talking points that have been used by Big Candy lobbyists and disproven for nearly three decades.
“It will not be doubted that with reference either to individual or national welfare, agriculture is of primary importance…” George Washington said that.
Similar quotes by great leaders have been sprinkled throughout the history of our proud nation ever since, and their words make clear just how important farmers and ranchers are to America’s economy, security, and way of life.
The Congressional Budget Office is charged with providing Congress budget estimates for all government policies. Sugar policy is no different, and critics often like to point to these estimates – especially in the out years – as a way to criticize sugar farmers’ safety net.
It might be a new year, but it’s the same old story.
Big Candy is complaining about no-cost sugar policy causing them financial hardship while they are simultaneously (albeit quietly) celebrating financial success. Consider these headlines from just the past couple of weeks:
U.S. Senator John Hoeven (R-N.D.) had some harsh words for the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) when he delivered the Republican Party’s weekly address on Jan. 9.
“Make no mistake, we are locked in a global battle to determine who will produce oil and gas in the world in the future,” he said. “Will it be OPEC? Russia? Countries like Venezuela? Or will it be us, the United States?”