Today we celebrate National Ag Day, a day dedicated to honoring the hardworking farm families who help feed our families. We’d like to shine a spotlight on a few of the more than 11,000 sugarbeet and sugarcane farmers who help keep it sweet in America.
More than 75 sugar producers recently visited Capitol Hill to share the stories behind their multi-generational family farms and farmer owned-cooperatives, and employee-owned or family-owned businesses. They talked about how sugar production creates good jobs in their rural communities and more than $23 billion in annual economic impact, the conservation practices they’ve implemented to keep their farms sustainable for future generations, and their pride in producing an essential food ingredient.
In fact, our farmers fulfill around 70 percent of our domestic sugar supply needs. That’s sugar made from crops grown right here in America and critical to our national food security.
None of this would be possible without a strong U.S. sugar policy. Designed to cost taxpayers absolutely nothing, U.S. sugar policy allows American farmers and sugar producers to survive amid a global market awash with highly-subsidized sugar – while keeping it sweet right here at home with fully stocked shelves of sugar.
As we also celebrate the first day of spring, and a new growing season, we are thankful that our farmers can rely on bipartisan and bicameral support for a strong U.S. sugar policy in the Farm Bill.
Take a moment to meet a few of our farmers and click on the link on each grower to watch a short video explaining what sugar policy means to them and their family farms:
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“Sugarbeets are really the backbone of our farm. Without sugarbeets, our farm wouldn’t exist as it does today. It’s vitally important to us.” – Wade Hanson, Crookston, MN
https://sugaralliance.us21.list-manage.com/track/click?u=eb757b38d19f4230cbbfc5667&id=ff0498e73f&e=fa5f7e08da
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“Us farmers are hardworking, Louisiana and American farmers – along with my sugarbeet friends – and we need a safe affordable food supply for America.” – Ricky Gonsoulin, New Iberia, LA
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“I’m hoping… having that strong safety net that one day [my son] too can continue to farm, and his children, and his children after.” – Kyle Zenon, Abbeville, LA
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"We've got the 6th generation coming up, and we hope we can continue our operation for another 100 years." – Paul & Vicki Schlagel, Longmont, CO
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