Top lawmakers showed strong support for the sugar industry at the American Sugar Alliance’s (ASA) annual Sweetener Symposium this week.
House Agriculture Committee Chairman Mike Conaway said sugar policy is needed because of foreign subsidization and predatory dumping, where nations export excess sugar at below their cost of production, according to Agri-Pulse.
He said the current U.S. sugar policy works.
“It works for the American taxpayer, and more importantly it works for the American sugar producer,” Conaway said via video.
Debbie Stabenow, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Ag panel who also spoke by video, said the U.S. sugar industry is a vital part of the rural economy.
“We don’t have an economy or a middle class, for that matter, if we don’t make things or grow things. And that’s what each of you do,” Stabenow said. “America’s great sugar industry is an essential part of the rural economy and our nation’s agricultural economy.”
Both lawmakers agreed to work with U.S. sugar growers on the next farm bill.
“It’s important that we keep the farm bill intact and free from attacks designed to undermine the five-year sugar policy and beyond,” Stabenow said. “And it’s important that we are ensuring that the interests of U.S. sugar (producers) are represented in the larger trade agenda. I am laser-focused on all of those things.”