Sugar industry sours on Bush

[Kadie]

Sugar industry sours on Bush

By ROB HOTAKAINEN, McClatchy Washington Bureau


Last Updated: September 3, 2004, 05:51:00 PM PDT


NORCROSS, MINN. (SMW) - Driving his pickup next to a huge field of sugar beets on a hot August afternoon, Terry Vipond offered two observations: His crop definitely needs rain, and the nation probably needs a new president.

Four years ago, Vipond, a 53-year-old farmer from Grant County, voted for George W. Bush, figuring Al Gore was too radical as an environmentalist. This year, he said he's likely to vote for Democratic Sen. John Kerry, figuring Bush is too radical as a free trader.

From Minnesota's Red River Valley to the bayous of Louisiana, many sugar producers are souring on the president, fearing that his proposed trade plan with Central America could flood the United States with imported sugar and put them out of business.

"It's obviously important to me - it's my livelihood," said Jim Horvath, the president of American Crystal Sugar Co. in Moorhead. In 2000, he said he gave $2,000 to help get Bush elected, but Horvath hasn't written any checks to the president's re-election campaign this year.

more...
http://www.modbee.com/24hour/politics/story/1622754p-9311174c.html

[UpInArms]

1. I do hope all of this country wakes up and smells the

impending destruction of our country.

With anger growing over the president's policies on trade, the economy and the war in Iraq, Peterson said that Bush would lose the district if the election were held today. That would be a huge turnaround since 2000, when Bush lost the state but carried the rural Seventh District by nearly 15 percentage points, his biggest margin of victory in a Minnesota congressional district.

[BiggJawn]

2. And I'll bet he didn't even say "I'll call you" when he left, did he, Jim.

Lay down with dogs, get up with fleas.

[HarveyBriggs]

3. More to this than what we see here

Read between the lines.

Bush had promised Horvath some special Bush-like insider treatment on trade protections. US sugar is outrageously expensive compared to world market prices.

While most would like to see some kind of transitional protections to help protect US labor, this has been a bit of a ... sweetheart deal for a special interest. Not the jobs here that US labor could benefit from if there were protections in other areas.

Nice to see Bush facing some realities, and losing support, though.

These farmers won't be any worse off now than anybody planting soybeans, wheat or corn. The reason they're complaining is that pricing for their crops has been inordinately high due to prtections and America's sweet tooth.

As for processed sugar and your health. There are those who say if we knew back in the 1930s what we know about processed sugar now, it would not be legal.

Harvey Briggs

[Mika]

4. US sugar subsidies were designed to destroy Cuba's sugar economy

If you are interested..


THE SUGAR SULTANS AND BRIBERY
http://www.afrocubaweb.com/SugarSultans.htm

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The Economic and Political Factors Affecting the U.S. Sugar Subsidy Program
http://titan.iwu.edu/~polysci/res_publica/peterson.html

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The Sugar Roulette
http://www.thegully.com/essays/cuba/000305roulette.html

[robcon]

5. I sure hope that we can import sugar soon.

We are paying twice the international price for sugar because of duties and quotas. The sugar lobby is the strongest ag lobby in Washington, bloated with tons of money generated by the extraordinary profits from growing sugar cane or sugar beets in the U.S.

We export more ag products than any other nation. Keeping the sugar lobby happy by restricting ag imports is the height of hypocrisy.

[Red_Viking]

6. Expensive sugar = cheap corn syrup =

huge profits for Archer Daniels Midland ("Supermarkup to the World").

If we don't end up getting cheaper sugar, you can bet ADM is behind it. They have huge influence, as do all the factory farm corporations.

Douchebags. :P

RV