Sugar Producer

22 Sugar Producer AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2016 160835ArtWay12h.indd 1 6/15/16 2:52 PM U.S. sugar producers picked up a valuable ally in the sugar policy debate earlier this year: Texas A&M University. The co-directors of the university's Agricultural and Food Policy Center, Drs. Joe Outlaw and James Richardson, released a report in May that found legislative proposals to change U.S. sugar policy would have dire economic consequences on U.S. sugar producers, put U.S. taxpayers on the hook and leave U.S. consumers dependent on unreliable, subsidized foreign suppliers. That report, which was widely circulated on Capitol Hill, analyzed schemes touted by large food manufacturers and a handful of legislators to unwind the sugar policy that was put in place in the 2008 Farm Bill and renewed under the 2014 Farm Bill. "Our analysis indicates that the FROM THE ASA By Phillip Hayes | Director of Media Relations Analysis Supports Policy proposed reforms, while perhaps of some short-term economic advantage to food manufacturers, would result in significant cost to U.S. taxpayers and sugarcane and sugarbeet farmers and processors, with little or no advantage to U.S. consumers," the authors wrote. "In the long-run, these reforms would undermine the food manufacturers' stated interest in maintaining a viable, healthy and geographically diverse sugar industry." The two Aggies based their conclusion on a thorough review of U.S. sugar production, the history of U.S. sugar policy and current distortions in the global market. Much of what they found is well-known in sugar circles but is eye-opening for those who haven't followed past sugar debates as closely, including two professors from College Station, Texas. Among those realizations: • Though relatively small in numbers, U.S. sugarbeet and sugarcane growers play an important role in America's agricultural landscape. • The sugar processing sector, which is largely owned and operated by growers through cooperative agreements, provides jobs and needed economic activity in rural communities, as well as a homegrown ingredient essential to the U.S. food supply. • U.S. sugar prices have remained fairly stagnant since the 1980s and have actually declined by 40 percent over the last 25 years, when corrected for inflation. Conversely, production costs—

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