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www.SugarProducer.com 31 Proud to be Part of Sugar Family FROM THE ASA By Phillip Hayes We can get pretty jaded in Washington, D.C. For example, lawmakers throw around the term "billions" the same way everyday Americans talk about "dollars and cents." Most line items in the federal budget are rounded to the nearest million for simplicity sake, while a lot of us will never see a million bucks in our lifetime. And unemployment is measured in faceless percentages to make it sound really small, even though every percent represents millions of real families struggling to find work and make ends meet. Sugar is not immune from the D.C. affliction of disconnectivity either. Rarely do I discuss individual farmers, families, or communities when conducting media interviews. Instead, I talk to the press in huge aggregate numbers like 142,000 jobs and $20 billion in economic activity to drive home the importance of the sugar industry. It's not intentional or mean-spirited. It just happens when you are hundreds of miles away from real life and are caught up in the political rat race. You forget that sugar policy is really about places like Greeley, Bay City, and Moorhead instead of minute details about loan rates and quotas. That's what made a news story I read during this year's beet harvest all the more remarkable. It was a small piece from a television station in the Red River Valley—short enough to paste here in its entirety. A community came together Sept. 29 to help the family of a man who recently passed away. Steve Moen not only left his family behind, but also tons of beets to harvest. What should have taken seven to eight days turned into a one-day operation as more than 60 friends and neighbors pitched in to make sure Moen's beets were harvested one last time. Harvesting took around 10 hours and the beets were taken to the Minn-Dak Farmers Cooperative in Wahpeton to be processed into sugar. "It's just tremendous—everybody who lives around here. It's a close community. Everybody wants to help in any way they can. It's just been an outpouring of support and it's really nice to see that everybody's willing to help the family in a time of crisis like this," said Andy Finkral, a member of the Minn-Dak Farmers Cooperative. The story's brevity tells me that it was a tiny news item locally. It also tells me that it's probably not that uncommon in rural America for acts of kindness to take center stage. Kindness is far too uncommon in D.C., which is why the story had a profound impact on the way I do my job. It reminded me that we work in Washington not to win some political prize or to beat another lobby. Rather, we work in Washington to better the rural communities comprised of hardworking families who know the real value of dollars and cents and understand that lending a helping hand to a neighbor in need can be far more valuable. Thank you, sugarbeet community for everything you do. And thank you, farm families, for reminding all of us in Washington, D.C., what makes agriculture so special and worth fighting for. Those of us in the nation's capital are lucky to be part of the sugar family, and we should never forget it, no matter how jaded things around us become. n Order Now To Guarantee Delivery For 2016 155514AgVant13.indd 1 9/25/15 8:36 AM Editor's note: Hayes is the director of media relations for the American Sugar Alliance. Email him at phillip@sugaralliance.org.