Louisiana sugar producers fire back at ‘WSJ’

The American Sugar Cane League says Louisiana’s sugar producers are outraged that a recent report in The Wall Street Journal “portrayed the domestic sugar industry incorrectly and unfairly,” says league General Manager Jim Simon. The article, titled “Big Sugar Is Set for a Sweet Bailout,”(subscription may be required to access article) focuses on the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s potential purchase of 400,000 tons of sugar—enough for 142 billion Hershey’s Kisses—”to stave off a wave of defaults by sugar processors that borrowed $862 million under a government price-support program.” And while the article says, “The domestic sugar industry has long relied on subsidies that critics say are disproportionate to its contribution to the U.S. economy,” Simon counters that most sugar produced in Louisiana comes from family farms and not giant corporations that are getting a sweet subsidy deal. “The Wall Street Journal article would have you believe that American consumers would be better served by foreign sugar producers who are heavily subsidized by their governments,” he says. “The USDA sugar policy has operated at no cost to the taxpayer for ten years in a row because of careful management from United State Department of Agriculture officials. How many commodity programs can claim they have operated at no taxpayer cost for ten years?” The American Sugar Cane League, which is based in Thibodaux, has its complete response to the article at its website here.