Sugarbeet Farmers Descend on Capitol Hill

One day before Valentine’s Day, the American Sugar Alliance released its 2009 Industry Outlook, which says the upcoming year will be a lot like a box of assorted chocolates—full of unknowns.

“The combination of economic pressures and unneeded foreign sugar cascading onto the U.S. market could be enough to sink America’s sugar producers,” the paper concluded.  But, “if the Farm Bill remains in tact and is implemented properly—and if America’s trade policy does not undercut its sugar growers—then U.S. producers have the tools to weather the storm of 2009 and enter 2010 in a strong position.”

That will be the message that sugarbeet farmers from across the country take to Capitol Hill as they begin two-weeks worth of meetings with lawmakers.

Alan Welp, a Colorado sugar grower and president of the American Sugarbeet Growers Association, says the challenges currently facing farmers are numerous.

Rising input costs; uncertainties about the amount of Mexican sugar that will enter the U.S. market; looming World Trade Organization talks; and budget pressures in Washington are among the top issues Welp and other growers will discuss.

But he says that all of these issues have one thing in common.  “Government policy holds the key to their outcome and to domestic sugar producers’ ability to meet consumer needs,” he explained.

The 2008 Farm Bill included two new provisions that should help counter some of these challenges—a sucrose ethanol program to soak up surpluses caused by unneeded imports from U.S. trade agreements and a modest loan rate increase (the first since 1985) to help offset producers’ increased business costs.

Sugarbeet farmers are cautiously optimistic that the government will make the right choices in 2009.  The popularity of sugar policy has been on the rise in Congress and President Barack Obama and new Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack have both made promising statements about sugar policy in recent months.

In addition to discussing the obstacles currently facing sugar producers, Welp says they want to make sure that elected officials understand the good deal sugar policy has been for taxpayers and how important the industry is to rural economies.

Sugar policy operated at no cost to taxpayers in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, and is estimated to again cost $0 in 2009.

Sugar is produced in 18 states, where the industry employs 146,000 Americans and generates nearly $10 billion in economic activity.