How much of the sugar industry did the Florida fields represent in the US? As an environmentalist I am glad the land is coming back for the Everglades. As a consumer I worry about food quality of food not made or grown in America and subject to the USDA's regulations. So what's the 360 on this one??

Annie Kate
Birmingham AL

I had no idea that our sugar prices here in the states were way higher than any where else! I mean it doesn't cost but a little over 2 dollars here for a 5 lb bag. Who would have thought that that was high!?

I can not believe that they get so much money from the government in subsidies!! But hey...they are just like most other big businesses! They send their lobbiest in to congress, pay off some people and get the laws passed that they want. No surprise there!!

Cindy..Ga.

Aren't we the taxpayers paying the $10 billion in subsidies so were paying more than just the added pennies to the products we buy.

I love chocolate very much but I'd rather see the everglades back to their original state.

And it's about time a company loses it's holdover the government.

Will this make Crist a VEEP? Probably not. If he relly wnats this to happen he will stay the govenor to see this project through.

Steve:

I would have thought Coke & Pepsi determined what sugar prices were. They are the largest user of sugar and essentially they sell sugar/water.

Susan
Phoenixville,PA

Dear Keeping Them Honest,

Well, If the U.S. Sugar Corporation wants to go state-wide, rather t

than national, it might be a good idea. There are many people with

diabetes in this country. We could ship the sugar to the states, and

not have to worry about blaming U.S. government for obesity,

diabetes and other diseases related to over consumption of sugar!!

=)

Sincerely yours,

Miss Autumn Song Cha

Romeoville, Illinois 60446

Thanks for all the comments. A couple of follow up points:

Annie: to your question about whether foreign producers are subject to US regulations, the short answer is no.

One of the many complexities of US sugar policy is that a few countries are permitted to sell sugar to the US market under a favorable tariff regime.

Last year Joe Johns and I visited one of the biggest exporters, the Dominican Republic, to look at how the sugar we eat is produced there. Much of it is harvested by Haitian migrant workers under some very difficult conditions. US sugar companies say that without the price supports, more of our sugar will come from overseas. If that happens, you can expect greater scrutiny of foreign labor practices.

Cindy: High US prices are the reason Life Savers, which were once made in Illinois, are now made in Quebec. Another company, Brach's, left Chicago in 2004, and 1,100 people lost their jobs.

As for Coke's market power, in the 1980's Coke switched from sugar to high fructose corn syrup. Same reason.

Sugar is bad to eat but we could have used it to make Alchool (sugar ethanol). It has an 8 times higher yield than corn!

It is good that the everglades will be re-instated but overall, I think that the environment would have faired better with the sugar in our tanks instead.

The government sure messes things up for the sake of money.

I have to go with Sabrina on this one. After watching the "We Were Warned" (or some title to that effect) special on CNN last week, I became very intrigued by what Brazil has been able to do with sugar ethanol and how much more efficient it seems to be than corn. As a Barack supporter, I was disconcerted to hear McCain come out in favor of following Brazil's lead, and then to hear allegations of Baracks ties to the corn ethanol industry, and his alleged efforts to block the development of sugar ethanol in the US. Steve, do you know if there is any truth to this? I'd like to get the facts.

This deal is going to haunt Florida for centuries, really disappointed in Christ but he sold the insurance companies a good deal too. So how many of the upper management are GOP's? But like BEETS made in s. america they got their act together a long time ago. Competition will get the speculators grreed in line and if anyone had guts they would put them in their place. I can remember when California's car insurance got outrageous and the govenor put a ulltimatum to the big cats ieither cap the prices or I will. Now thats a man with guts.

U.S. Sugar will just off-shore their sugar production–it is unlikely they'll just throw in the towel because Uncle Sugar won't subsidize the sugar under a Democratically controlled government. This will decrease the price of sugar in the short term... but it will decimate two U.S. cities in Florida whose primary revenue is from the sugar industry.

Win one....lose one.
The American way.