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SUPPORT the Ag Committee Farm
Bill (HR 2646)
OPPOSE the Miller-Miller Amendment (HR 2081)
Sugar Farmers Hurting. U.S.
producer prices for sugar are down nearly 30% since 1996, a financial
disaster for American sugarbeet and sugar cane farmers. Many have gone out
of business and many more are on the brink of economic ruin.
Sugar Users Profiting. Grocers and
food manufacturers have passed none of these lower prices along to
consumers. Retail prices for sugar, candy, ice cream, and other sweetened
products are up, not down, though producer prices have fallen
significantly over the last 5 years. Enormous economic harm to farm
families. No benefits to consumers. Higher profits for the grocery chains
and food manufacturing corporations.
Users Want More. Now the grocers
and food manufacturers are demanding even more profits at the expense of
American family farmers. Simply stated, to satisfy their quest for
unreasonably cheap supplies of foreign subsidized sugar, these
multinational corporations want to see current U.S. sugar policy destroyed
and U.S. sugar farmers out of business. That is why they support
Miller-Miller (H.R. 2081). This legislation will force the Secretary of
Agriculture to flood this country with subsidized foreign sugar, which
will drive producer prices down further, and force the remaining,
efficient American sugar farmers out of business.
No Consumer Benefit. History shows
that consumers would see no benefit. But the already profitable food
manufacturing corporations would increase their profits further.
The Devastating Results of the
Miller-Miller Amendment
Immediately single out sugar to be the only commodity program with no
price-support mechanism. It would prevent the Secretary from offering
sugar farmers non-recourse loans, which farmers can satisfy by forfeiting
their crop when prices fall.
Force the Secretary to drive market prices down another 30%, to about
14 cents per pound by 2004. Domestic sugar producers would be driven out
of business and huge quantities of foreign sugar would be imported from
the subsidized world dump market. Why U.S. Sugar Policy Is Needed. U.S.
sugar policy has acted as a cushion against imports from the world dump
market, where prices have run only about half the world average cost of
producing sugar for most of the past two decades. American sugar farmers
are efficient by world standards, and are willing to compete on a level
playing field against foreign sugar farmers, but they cannot compete
against foreign governments.
U.S. Sugar Policy -- A Success
for Users, Consumers, Taxpayers
Users. Producer prices for high-quality American sugar, paid by grocers
and food manufacturers, had been flat since 1985 and plunged lower the
past two years. The food corporations then pocketed the savings, instead
of giving the American consumer a break. Consumers. U.S. consumer sugar
prices are about the most affordable in the world, 20% below the
developed-country average, and are essentially unchanged since 1990.
Taxpayers. U.S. sugar policy was a net revenue raiser of $279 million
during 1991-1999. The modest cost for forfeitures of sugar loans last year
amounted to only 1.5% of federal commodity program expenditures, and will
be defrayed as that sugar is gradually sold back into the market. |