One Democratic and two Republican former Secretaries of Agriculture have called on Congress to bring essential changes to the domestic sugar industry.
In a surprise announcement carried over the PR Newswire Newsfax, Dan Glickman, Jack Block and Clayton Yeutter endorsed the Miller-Miller Sugar Reform Amendment, which is expected to be voted on today.
The Miller-Miller amendment will reject production controls, reduce price supports, and provide for an increase in the existing forfeiture penalty.
The Coalition of Sugar Reform is a group of 18 organizations and associations whose objective is market-oriented reform of the U.S. sugar program. Most are heavy sugar users, such as candy companies who believe buying off the world market will lower their sugar input costs.
Sugar producers argue that a lower sugar price would not be reflected in a lower cost of their product to the consumers, but would put money directly into the pockets of owners and investors. The sugar industry believes that if such legislation should pass, lower world sugar prices would quickly climb, negating any benefits to the users and damaging the domestic sugar industry, perhaps forever.
Additional information is on the Coalition's website: http://www.sugar-reform.org. Information from the sugar industry can be found at www.sugar.org.