US Sugar Program Reform Proposed In US Senate

By Don Molino

Voice of Louisiana Agriculture Radio Network

Lawmakers in the Senate have Introduced legislation to reform the Federal Sugar Support Program.

But Jim Simon, General Manager of the American Sugarcane league in Thibodaux, says the bill is anything but fair.

“It’s from our usual suspects in Washington, Senators Pat Toomy and Jeanne Shaheen. The represent some of the sugar using interests in the Untied States and they’re always lookin to try to push a program that allows some of they’re people to purchase dumped world market sugar and place it into the US market to compete against our reliable and dependable sugar supply we provide here in the US,” says Simon.

“What sugar policy does it simply creates a balanced market in the US to stop that dumped sugar from overtaking the 142,000 jobs sugar supports in the US,” Simon went on to point out.

“We don’t cost the taxpayers anything and we don’t get any direct checks from the federal government. We simply get a price for our commodity out of the marketplace.”