Sugar Producer

28 Sugar Producer FEBRUARY 2019 FROM THE ASGA By Luther Markwart | EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT No Minor Victory Years of hard work have led to policy victories for the beet sugar industry Dec. 20 was a historic policy day for American agriculture and in particular the beet sugar industry. First, President Trump signed the 2018 Farm Bill, setting farm policy in place for the next five years. That bill contained a 1-cent-per-pound increase in the raw cane sugar loan rate (from 18.75 to 19.75 cents) and an increase in the refined beet sugar loan rate (from 24.09 to 25.38 cents per pound). These were clearly a victory for the sugar industry in fighting off attacks on the policy along with a minor improvement in it. Many thanks are owed to your congressional champions and their staff, your grower leaders and Washington representatives (especially the now-retired Ruthann Geib), and our public relations operations. This was a massive effort over multiple years, and we celebrate another farm bill and the stability it brings as farmers work on financing for the 2019 crop. Now we will need to educate new lawmakers about our policy and defend it against attacks in the future. We are fully prepared to do so. Your support of the industry's political action committee has been critically important to carry out that essential task. Secondly, the USDA released the final rule for the National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard, which governs the labeling requirements for bioengineered food. The final rule was required by a bipartisan law passed by Congress in July 2016, which delegated the authority to the USDA's Agriculture Marketing Service to develop the final regulations regarding the labeling of bioengineered food. The U.S. is the global leader in developing and growing bioengineered crops, so it was critically important that our government set an appropriate disclosure standard. These regulations have huge implications for our industry and have global ramifications as other countries watch closely what we do. To some extent it becomes a factor in our current and future trade negotiations with other countries. That is why we at the ASGA made this the highest priority to work on from the very beginning. It has been a very long battle in which we have played a pivotal role for years. Many other commodities and farm groups looked to our work to make

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