Louisiana Sugar Cane Farmers Want a Stalemated Congress to Pass the Farm Bill

Vermilion Parish sugar cane farmer Kyle Zenon put on his Sunday church suit to haunt the halls of Capitol Hill in a quest to push a gridlocked Congress into passing the stalled Farm Bill.

Though subsidies, loans, insurance and other measures handled in the Farm Bill are important to all farmers in Louisiana, it’s the legislation’s “sugar policy” that worries Zenon. 

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Scary Land-Walking Louisiana Fish Getting A New Name

Louisiana fishermen know which fish are "trash fish" and which ones you throw back. Not many Bayou State anglers or residents, for that matter, are frightened of fish. Snakes, on the other hand, are a different matter entirely. Enter the snakehead fish, and there are several reasons it's scary.

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don molino
Analyzing World & US Sugar Price Dynamics

It is critical to consider the relationship between macroeconomic forces and the balance of global sugar supply and demand when examining sugar markets.

Global economic expansion, along with a world population that is growing at approximately 1% per year (U.S. Department of Commerce, 2024), supports strong sugar demand globally, which typically also supports world prices.

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Solar Panel OK'd for Permitting

Tangipahoa Parish’s second solar field took a giant step forward when the parish council on Tuesday night approved Parker Branch Solar’s request to proceed with the permitting process.

A spokesman for Parker Branch told council members the company has met all the requirements to proceed to the permitting phase and council approval was the next step.

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Avery Davidson
Smiley Anders, Columnist Beloved by Generations of Advocate Readers, Former Louisiana Farm Bureau News Editor, Dies at 86

Year after year, people have started their mornings with Smiley.

His column — a daily collection of funny, odd and nostalgic anecdotes submitted by his many readers and deftly spun into an entertaining whole — captured the spirit of south Louisiana.

After more than 50 years of writing for The Advocate, Smiley Anders died Friday at his home in Spanish Town in Baton Rouge. He was 86.

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New Garden Ceremony at Union Parish Library

The Union Parish Library recently cut the red ribbon on an interesting new project: an educational flowerbed! The Flowertale Garden: The Story of Louisiana Native Trees & Grasses was funded in part by Claiborne Electric Operation Round-Up as an interpretative educational garden about native plants. Stephanie Herrmann, Library Director commented, “When we needed to replace dying landscape plants, we decided to turn an otherwise backdrop flower beds into something that tells a story!”

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Avery Davidson
Louisiana Rum Making a Name in the Spirit World

Louisiana is a leading American producer of sugarcane. Sugarcane is a tropical plant that typically has a growing season of 12 months or longer, but our enterprising sugarcane growers and millers have learned how to grow a top crop in just nine. Because we can grow a commercial sugarcane crop in such a short time, we are regarded as “heroes of the sugarcane world” by the international cane community.

What do we make of our sugarcane? The main products are raw sugar and molasses. We make those two products really well and we make a lot of it. In 2023 we produced nearly two million tons of raw sugar and 100 million gallons of molasses. Another product made from sugarcane is rum.

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