| SAGINAW TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) -- A dry summer and wet fall are hampering
the sugar beet harvest in Michigan, where processors are starting to
receive shipments from farmers.
At the same time, Congress is standing by the industry, voting down a
proposal Thursday to cut sugar price supports.
Michigan Sugar Co., based in this Saginaw County community, opened its
16 sites Wednesday. Company officials said they were looking for 7,000 to
8,000 tons of beets at each site Thursday. Sugar beet processing is
expected to get into high gear in about 10 days.
The dry summer hindered sugar beet growth, and a wet fall is slowing
the harvest. Monitor Sugar Co. last week operated one of its sites, at Bay
City, The Saginaw News reported.
Michigan Sugar has 113,000 acres under contract, while Monitor has
73,079 acres under contract, the companies said.
The U.S. House gave sugar producers a break Thursday when it rejected
an amendment to the Farm Bill that would have reduced sugar price
supports.
The price support program keeps U.S. sugar prices artificially high,
raising costs for candy and food manufacturers.
The amendment by U.S. Reps. Dan Miller, R-Fla., and George Miller, D-Calif.,
effectively would have cut the price floor from its current 18 cents a
pound to 15 cents a pound, the American Sugar Alliance said.
It failed 239-177, with the Michigan delegation voting 11-4 against.
Favoring the amendment were Democrat John Conyers of Detroit and
Republicans Vern Ehlers of Grand Rapids, Pete Hoekstra of Holland and Fred
Upton of St. Joseph.
Opposed were Democrats Jim Barcia of Bay City, David Bonior of Mount
Clemens, John Dingell of Dearborn, Dale Kildee of Flint, Carolyn Cheeks
Kilpatrick of Detroit, Sander Levin of Royal Oak, Lynn Rivers of Ann Arbor
and Bart Stupak of Menominee and Republicans Joe Knollenberg of Bloomfield
Township, Mike Rogers of Brighton and Nick Smith of Addison.
"The thousands of hardworking sugar farmers in the United States
applaud action by the House rejecting this anti-sugar-farmer
amendment," said Bay County sugar beet farmer Ray VanDriessche,
president of the American Sugarbeet Growers Association.
He said the vote shows that members of Congress "recognize the
value of maintaining a stable supply of this vital ingredient in the food
chain."
The Coalition for Sugar Reform, a lobbying group that includes major
sugar buyers such as Coca-Cola Co., has pushed for an end to the price
support and an opening to imports available at a fraction of the U.S.
price.
The price support program "provides a protected market for a very
few producers at the expense of every other American," group
spokesman Jeff Nedelman said in 1999.
The group's Web site says sugar price supports cost consumers about
$1.4 billion a year. They also "undermine the U.S. negotiating
position on trade" by making it hard to challenge other nations'
barriers to U.S. products, it says. |