Crystal Sugar pays off $46.6 million government loan with sugar
Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune
The move likely will cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars as the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) tries to unload the sugar in a market where supply far exceeds demand. Because of the government shutdown, it was not clear how many other companies across the country paid back loans in sugar instead of dollars.
American Crystal’s decision came a day after the government announced that it had lost $53.3 million buying sugar from companies across the country and selling it to biofuel producers. The $53.3 million loss was considered necessary to limit the amount of sugar borrowers would use to pay back loans.
All the moves have focused a harsh glare on the country’s complex and controversial sugar support program, which protects producers and refiners by limiting imports and and letting companies repay federal loans with sugar when prices dip below certain levels.
The program’s supporters have pushed it as operating “at no cost to taxpayers.” But this fiscal year taxpayers appear to be on the hook for more than $100 million due to a combination of government buy-backs and forfeitures.
Read more: http://www.startribune.com/business/226011811.html
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... can you imagine someone like Cruz or Bachmann on an induced sugar buzz while they're spewing their nonsensa-babble?
Tell them we want CASH!!!
http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/15553/for_union_members_crystal_sugar_lockout_outcome_anything_but_sweet/
Tuesday Sep 3, 2013 6:15 pm
By Mike Elk
For 22 months, workers were locked out of employment at American Crystal Sugar plants like this one in East Grand Forks, Minn. (GFPeck / Flickr / Creative Commons)
When workers in a labor struggle are forced to agree to major concessions, labor leaders and allies often find ways to recast the defeat as a long-term victory. Often, they say that losing a tough fight opened up workers’ eyes to the lengths they must go to in order to win the next one.
In 2011, for instance, labor circles widely celebrated the massive Wisconsin protests of Governor Scott Walker’s anti-union bill, which stripped public employees of collective bargaining rights and forced unions to give massive concessions in terms of wages and benefits. Still, many felt that Wisconsin was a turning point because it inspired unions to fight back in ways previously thought unimaginable—the crowds of protesters, numbering nearly 100,000, continuously occupied the Capitol for three weeks. Even after labor lost its bid to recall Walker, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka declared, “We wanted a different outcome, but Wisconsin forced the governor to answer for his efforts to divide the state and punish hardworking people. Their resolve has inspired a nation to follow their lead and stand up for the values of hard work, unity and decency that we believe in.”
No matter what was given up at the bargaining table—even if the bargaining table was thrown out the window—rarely will a labor leader come out and say that a loss was a bad one, or that mistakes were made. Labor leaders, after all, are subject to the same fear of mistakes jeopardizing their next campaign as other elected officials. And for the workers, there’s basic human psychology at hand: People like to see that their struggles weren't for nothing.
But while spinning defeat into quasi-victory may make activists feel better, do massive losses really inspire future efforts? After one such setback in the Red River Valley, which spans the border between North Dakota and Minnesota, union activists are wrestling with this question.
When the cross-country Solidarity of Summer labor tour stopped last Saturday in Moorhead, Minn., the talk among local labor activists was of the 22-month lockout of sugar workers, which ended in April with a bitter loss. After contract negotiations went sour in 2011, Crystal Sugar locked out 1,300 workers—members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers, and Grain Millers (BCTGM) union—at five plants in Minnesota, Iowa and North Dakota. For nearly two years, the workers held out, turning down the contract, which they felt was concessionary, in four separate votes.
FULL story at link.
I would hate to see mountains of government sugar being given away to the poor like the infamous government cheese. So would Michelle Obama.
Meanwhile, a staggering 40 percent of our corn crop goes for ethanol, not to mention a sizable chunk for high-fructose corn syrup. 
That drives up the price of corn, helping U.S. farmers but hurting poor people in places like Mexico.
