WASHINGTON - Trade experts Bob Kudrle and Bryan Riley are convinced that price supports and other protections for the U.S. sugar industry force consumers and foodmakers to pay more for sugar than they should.
U.S. Rep. Collin Peterson, who represents thousands of Minnesota beet sugar growers and producers, believes the federal sugar policy guarantees jobs and stable commodity prices.
Still, all three men agree on one point: The current sugar policy won't go away any time soon.
Over the past two weeks, the sugar industry has persuaded lawmakers to renew the sugar program in the 2012 farm bill, which will govern agriculture policy for the next five years. Further, tariffs on foreign sugar won't be part of the negotiations for a new free trade agreement spanning the Pacific Ocean.
"We remain confident that the sugar policy that has been in place ... will remain in place," said Kevin Price, a lobbyist for Moorhead, Minn.-based American Crystal Sugar Co.
To most observers, the likely renewal of the sugar program demonstrates the enormous political clout of the sugar lobby, and in particular, American Crystal Sugar, a farmers' cooperative. During the first quarter of 2012, the co-op poured $951,300 into lobbying Congress, leading a $2.5 million industry push that was roughly six times what opponents of the sugar policy spent.
"People have recognized that this is a bad policy all of my adult life, but it gets through," said Kudrle, an international trade professor at the University of Minnesota. "There is no question that money talks more than ever."
As the nation's largest producer of refined sugar through beet farming, Crystal Sugar generates 15 percent of the country's sugar supply, while cultivating deep roots in Washington, D.C. The co-op continues to be one of the biggest congressional campaign contributors, spreading the maximum allowable donations to hundreds of Senate and House candidates.