There seems to be a sweet spot for sugar policy in President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet, sugar lobbyist Luther Markwart told Montana and Wyoming beet farmers Wednesday.
Speaking in Billings, Mont., Markwart, ASGA executive vice president, said it was still too soon to know exactly what the Trump presidency will mean for U.S. sugar, or to agriculture in general.
Trump has yet to nominate an agriculture secretary. However, other key cabinet nominees seem to bode well for an industry that contributes $100 million a year to Montana’s economy.
The upside to those picks is their understanding of Mexico’s influence on the U.S. economy, said Markwart who was the noon speaker at the Wyoming/Montana Malt Barley and Sugarbeet Symposium.
“What about Secretary of Commerce Wilber Ross?” Markwart said. “He understands how foreign competitors have harmed domestic industries. What is our biggest issue? Foreign countries who subsidize their sugar producers and dump product into a world market that threatens us.”
The sugarbeet lobby will be trying to secure favorable crop insurance terms in the next farm bill, dissuading lawmakers from increasing labeling requirements on biotech crops, and trying to defend sugar from an anti-sugar childhood obesity movement, which Markwart said uses faulty science to blame sugar for poor child health when a lack of exercise should be the focus.
Source: billingsgazette.com