Our Family Farmers Keep It Sweet

Happy National Ag Day! Today we honor hardworking farm families across the country, including our more than 11,000 sugarbeet and sugarcane farmers. These farmers help keep it sweet in America, producing a stable supply of all-natural, homegrown sugar.

We will also celebrate the first day of spring in just a few days, marking the start of a new growing season for many of our farmers, the continuation of Florida’s sugarcane harvest, and the start of California’s sugarbeet harvest. While this is a very busy time on the farm, sugarbeet and sugarcane farmers still made their annual trek to Capitol Hill at the beginning of the month, armed with just one message:

We need a new Farm Bill — now.

Our farmers take great pride in growing the crops that produce an essential food ingredient. But as sugarbeet farmer Tim Deal recently told the House Agriculture Committee, “pride doesn’t pay the bills.”

American farmers, including sugarbeet and sugarcane producers, are facing pressures from increased costs, lower crop prices, and a lapsed Farm Bill that is now more than two years overdue. A five-year Farm Bill that puts America’s farmers first and strengthens U.S. sugar policy will help support current and future generations of American sugar producers.

Watch some of our farmers share in their own words why a new Farm Bill is important to their family farms.

Sugarbeet farmer Gus Hasbargen was one of the growers recently in Washington, DC. Gus looks forward to returning to the family farm when he graduates from college this spring, but farmers like the Hasbargens need the stability and certainty of a five-year Farm Bill.

“My great-grandpa was one of the first farmers in our area to raise sugarbeets. He saw the potential in this crop, and today, we’re still building on what he started. It’s amazing to look out at the fields and know that the same land has sustained our family for generations. And that’s what we want to protect—not just for ourselves, but for the next generation of farmers.”

—Gus Hasbargen

American sugar production is an economic engine for both rural and urban communities, supporting more than 151,000 jobs across the country and generating more than $23 billion in annual economic impact. U.S. sugar policy is also designed to cost taxpayers nothing. 

If we want to keep it sweet in America, we need Congress to pass a new Farm Bill. 

Thank you to each of our farmers for your hard work and determination. We’re grateful for all that you do!