| 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.
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.
It failed 239-177, with the Michigan delegation voting 11-4 against the
amendment.
"I voted to give growers the financial tools they need to help the
family farm survive in times of economic hardship," said U.S. Rep.
James A. Barcia, D-Bay City, who cast a no vote.
"Statistics show that farmers suffered economically more than any
other group in the nation during the past four years. We must do
everything we can to keep the family farm from disappearing from the
American landscape."
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.
Barcia said keeping sugar price supports is an annual battle, fought
with a huge coalition of candy manufacturers and chocolate companies
"who put a tremendous amount of effort into a misinformation
campaign."
He said lobbyists try to convince members of Congress that there's a
direct subsidy by taxpayers to sugar producers, which isn't the case. But
foreign sugar producers do receive subsidies, he said.
Representatives don't get free cans of Coke of Pepsi, but cardboard
cut-outs have been arriving at Barcia's door.
"Every day Pinocchio arrives and the nose is longer and longer,
claiming the sugar beet industry is not being truthful," Barcia said.
Meanwhile, Monitor Sugar Co. started receiving beets last week. The
company has 73,079 acres under contract.
Paul D. Pfenninger, Monitor's vice president of agriculture, said he's
expecting an average year.
He said the area has seen 8.5 inches of rain since a drought was broken
in mid-August.
"That amount of rain has lowered the sugar content a little bit,
but it has given a good jump to our tonnage," Pfenninger said.
That means the company will have to slice more beets to make sugar, but
the beets are available, he said.
He said the Monitor Sugar expects to receive an above-average number of
beets, as much as 19 tons per acre, but the beets will have a
below-average sugar content, about 15 percent.
Michigan Sugar Co., based in Saginaw County, opened 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. Michigan Sugar has 113,000 acres under contract.
Beet farmers praised Thursday's vote in Congress.
"The thousands of hard-working 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 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.
Voting in opposition Thursday with Barcia were 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.
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.
-The Times News Service contributed to this report. |