Help Florida, nation: Reform sugar program

Congress must write a new farm bill this year, so Congress finally can reform the sugar program that enriches a few growers in Florida, but keeps prices artificially high for everyone else.

Today’s program includes price supports, limits on how much each producer can sell and import quotas. A 2016 Congressional Research Service report called it “singular among major agricultural commodity programs.”

Florida and Louisiana dominate the domestic sugarcane market, producing almost 90 percent of the crop. Threefourths of sugarcane in Florida is grown in Palm Beach County south of Lake Okeechobee, with the rest in neighboring Hendry County. Two companies — West Palm Beach-based Florida Crystals and Clewiston-based U.S. Sugar — dominate production.

Though the government is supposed to operate the sugar program at no cost to taxpayers, that doesn’t always happen. The Department of Agriculture must buy unused sugar — through price support loans — and in 2013 the department lost $280 million.

More important is the cumulative harm from supporting sugarcane and sugar beet producers to such a degree. It begins with higher costs. That Congressional Research Service report included an estimate from the International Trade Commission that just ending import restrictions would have saved American consumers nearly $1.7 billion between 2012 and 2017.

In Florida, the harm also is environmental. Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam was right last week when he told the Forum Club of the Palm Beaches that development has consumed some of the original Everglades. The biggest threat to what remains, however, is agricultural runoff, most of it from sugar farms.

Though a 1994 law has reduced pollution levels, growers have fought to avoid meeting the standard under which water entering the Everglades would be safe for plants and wildlife. Cutting pollution can be expensive and can take land out of production.

The roughly 700,000-acre Everglades Agricultural Area also disrupts the historic flow of water from Lake Okeechobee to Florida Bay. Water must be dumped from Lake Okeechobee to the east and west when the lake gets too high, harming coastal estuaries.

When Senate President Joe Negron, who represents Martin and St. Lucie counties, proposed a southern reservoir, growers pushed back because they might lose land. The Legislature approved the storage area, but it will be less than one-third the size Negron first proposed.

To understand the sugar growers’ influence — and thus the durability of the sugar program — follow the money.

During the 2014 Florida election cycle, U.S. Sugar alone gave $1.5 million to Gov. Rick Scott and other Republicans. In 2016, an analysis by TCPalm showed that Scott had received nearly $1 million from the sugar industry and Sen. Marco Rubio about $500,000. After Rubio announced his 2016 presidential bid, he got a hug from Jose “Pepe” Fanjul, one of two brothers who founded Florida Crystals. Jose Fanjul lobbies Republicans. Alfonso “Alfy” Fanjul lobbies Democrats.

Not one member of the Florida congressional delegation is among the 78 co-sponsors of House Resolution 4265 — the Sugar Policy Modernization Act that is before Congress. It would phase in such changes as lifting limits on domestic production and limiting government liability on loan repayments. Sponsors say it would “bring market forces into the U.S. sugar market and phase out supply-management policies.”

The unique largesse of the sugar program creates a unique alliance of critics — very conservative members of the House Freedom Caucus and very liberal Democrats. Some represent districts that include sugar users, notably the makers of candy, cookies and soda. Others object philosophically to what they consider “crony capitalism.”

During previous attempts to change the program, growers have warned darkly of a “sugar cartel.” Sugar, though, doesn’t carry the national security concerns that oil did in the 1970s. If anything, we need to consume less sugar, not more.

The new argument is jobs. Judy Sanchez, U.S. Sugar’s public affairs director, said the industry employs 12,500 people in Florida. “Any drastic changes to our nation’s sugar policy,” Sanchez said in an email to the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board, “would put these jobs at risk in favor of farming jobs in places like Mexico, where the government owns part of the industry.”

We acknowledge the potential loss of jobs in the Glades, one of the state’s poorer regions. But when U.S. Sugar was prepared to sell all its holdings to the state 10 years ago, the company stressed the potential environmental benefits while the Glades communities panicked over the potential economic damage.

Sentiment may be shifting. U.S. Rep. Brian Mast, who represents many of Negron’s constituents, said last week that he would vote for the Sugar Policy Modernization Act. Still, reform will be tough. The House Agriculture Commission referred the farm bill without any changes to the sugar program.

On balance, though, the evidence supports reform.

Too many of the sugar program’s benefits go to the producers, not the public.