Because America's Not Fat Enough Or Broke Enough
Mike Hughlett writes in the Star-Tribune that the USDA will spend $38M to prop up sugar prices:
The federal government will intervene in the sugar market for the first time in more than a decade, spending up to $38 million in an effort to forestall a later bailout of sugar producers in Minnesota and elsewhere that could cost more than $300 million.Minnesota is home to the nation's largest beet sugar industry, which is protected by import tariffs and supported by loan guarantees.
Due to historically low sugar prices this year, a clause in the loan program would allow beet and cane sugar producers to walk away from their loans, forfeiting the collateral -- sugar -- instead.
The government would then sell the sugar, most likely at depressed prices. To avoid a wave of potentially expensive forfeiture sales this summer and fall, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said Monday that it instead would buy sugar on the domestic market in what agency officials are calling a newly devised "least-cost method."
The USDA estimates the measure would cost $38 million. It is aimed at pushing up current sugar prices so that producers don't default on their loans and simply forfeit sugar. The USDA has estimated that if that happened, taxpayers' estimated cost would be $110 million to $320 million.
I guess girls and farmers are made of sugar and spice and everything nice.
Jim P. at June 20, 2013 10:29 PM
I'll repeat something I've said here before: do you know why so many prepared foods use high-frutcose corn syrup? Because government interference in the market makes sugar too expensive. Get rid of sugar price supports, and use of HFCS disappears.
Cousin Dave at June 21, 2013 6:42 AM
Sweet...
Roger at June 21, 2013 7:12 AM
I have my doubts about that Cousin Dave. Not about the relative prices, but that food companies will switch over. One of the big things for junk food is making sure that someone doesn't get tired of eating it (how did I eat the whole bag?). Take the Baked Lays potato chip. If you keep chewing it after the salty goodness is gone, it quickly breaks down into a starchy mush. There is nothing about it that your senses recognize as "food" so your brain doesn't put the breaks on the mindless munching. McDonald's and Budweiser have similar aims. Your brain and tastebuds will never say "I'm kind of sick of this."
Corn syrup doesn't register with the brain as "sweet food," but sugar does. I am perfectly capable of drinking a 2 liter of Mountain Dew in a day (I'm not proud of this). But I have a limit of one or two glasses of homemade sweet tea before I'm done.
Elle at June 21, 2013 8:19 AM
One of the things I read about baked snack foods is that they are essentially pure carbs. Therefore, you never feel full eating them because there is no fat. When there is no fat in food, you end up eating and over eating, and are hungry again two hours later.
I dont eat many carbs these days, but when I do, i make sure they are not fat free.
I also dont drink many sweetened drinks. I do love Sanpellegrino grapefruit soda, and limit myself to two or three cans a week. Anything else is water, coffee, or tea with milk, but no sugar.
Artificial sweetners are poisonous crap, and give me headaches.
Isab at June 21, 2013 9:14 AM
"I have my doubts about that Cousin Dave. Not about the relative prices, but that food companies will switch over. "
I disagree, and here's why I think so: Many times, the same food products that are made with HFCS in the United States are made with sugar in Mexico, e.g., nearly all soft drinks that are marketed in both places. And it certainly isn't because the Mexican government regulates the use of HFCS. It's because the Mexican government doesn't prop up the sugar industry.
Cousin Dave at June 21, 2013 10:32 AM
Ah, I had forgotten about the likes of "Mexican Coke." That is a good point.
Elle at June 21, 2013 11:37 AM
To me, beverages made with HFCS have an almost lemon like flavor that totally changed the taste of a lot of classic beverages.
My husband, and other people used to love Dr Pepper when they were kids, but then two things happened that changed the taste.
First, cans, which made soda taste terrible until they lined the cans, and second was the switch to HFCS.
There is a plant in Dublin Texas, that makes Dr Pepper with real sugar. They do a brisk mail order business, in spite of the higher price.
Isab at June 21, 2013 12:27 PM
Dublin Dr. Pepper is no longer available thanks to Snapple who owns the Dr. Pepper brand.
And sugar prices would fall drastically if the govt did not artificially prop them up. There are two or three outfits that benefit in the fine state of FLA from laws that were originally intended to help small farmers. Guess what? Maybe we should get rid of these laws.
People that bitch about spending "tax money" on PBS and "The Arts" don't seem to have any problem with subsidies for this kind of thing. I wonder why that is.
DrCos at June 23, 2013 4:50 AM
I've bitched about the farm subsidies too. Actually I bitch about the federal government being in any private enterprise or market.
Jim P. at June 23, 2013 9:50 AM
"People that bitch about spending "tax money" on PBS and "The Arts" don't seem to have any problem with subsidies for this kind of thing. I wonder why that is."
I bitch about both of them. But you're right; there's an awful lot of muddy and emotional thinking when it comes to farm subsidies. I've long found it ironic that the cultural image of the "all-American" farm seems to come with such a socialist expectation attached to it, and that so many people see no cognitive dissonance there.
Cousin Dave at June 24, 2013 8:43 AM
Leave a comment