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Farm bill amendment would change sugar policy

The U.S. House version of the farm bill may contain a change in U.S. sugar policy that’s opposed by domestic sugar producers.  Republican Representative Virginia Foxx of North Carolina favors an amendment to eliminate production limits that currently support sugar prices.

“So it mandates an oversupply of sugar on the U.S. market,” said Phillip Hayes, a spokesman for the American Sugar Alliance, during an interview with Brownfield Ag News, adding that the amendment is bad for U.S. sugar producers.  “We’re fighting that tooth and nail,” he said.

Foxx is basing her amendment on her belief in free markets, but House Agriculture Committee Chairman Mike Conaway, a Texas Republican, tells Brownfield he finds the amendment troubling.

“We’ve got sugar that’s being dumped into this market that’s harvested by slave labor or child labor in all these other countries that just shouldn’t be part of the process,” Conaway told Brownfield Ag News.

“Sugar manufacturers in America are among the lowest-cost producers in the world; they know how to do their job and do it well,” said Conaway.  “This idea that somehow the product that you give away at restaurants for free is skewing their ability to make money or jobs being created in America is really hard to kind of understand.”

The House Rules Committee was meeting Wednesday to decide what amendments might be voted on as part of the farm bill.  The full House is expected to vote on the farm bill Friday.

AUDIO: Rep. Mike Conaway (2 min. MP3)

AUDIO: Phillip Hayes (2 min. MP3)