U.S. farmers operate in partnership with God, says a Powell farmer and sugar chairman of the national Women Involved in Farm Economics.

Klodette Stroh, who farms east of Powell with her husband Rick, cites the popular commentator of previous years, Paul Harvey, in his blessing of farmers: “And on the eighth day, God looked down on His planned paradise and said, ‘I need a caretaker.’ So God made farmers.” 

“One in three acres of U.S. farmland is planted for exports,” she noted. “There will be millions of new mouths to feed, and many will be relying on United States farmers to be fed.”

Stroh ticked off the immense contribution of U.S. farmers as suppliers to the world.

“Our farmers provide one-fourth of the world’s beef and one-fifth of the world’s eggs, milk and grain,” she said. “In 2001, 45% of the world’s soybeans were produced in the United States, and cotton is by far the most dominant fiber produced, which is used for clothing, home fabrics, as well as manufacturing uses.”

And then there is sugar. Of nearly 170 countries in the world, about 110 produce at least some sugar, and the governments of all these countries intervene in cost or trade of their sugar production.

“This makes sugar one of the most heavily subsidized commodities in the world,” Stroh said. “U.S sugar farmers have not received government payment since the expiration of U.S. Sugar Act of 1974. The cost of production is the farmers’ responsibility and risk, which keeps going up because of EPA and government regulation.”

At the same time, sugar prices have been dropping in 2025, due to a global oversupply driven by excellent weather conditions in major producing regions like Brazil, India and Thailand. This increase in supply outpaced demand. 

“United States lawmakers must assure the implementation of a strong Farm Bill with a sugar policy,” Stroh said. “Sugar policy works for taxpayers because sugar farmers don’t receive subsidy checks. Current U.S. sugar policy is working well and operating as designed. It is the least expensive commodity program in the Farm Bill, and it is the only viable safety net available to sugar farm families. Sugar factories repay their operating loans back to the Commodity Credit Corporation government loan program with interest.”

Sugar policy costs zero dollars since it is included in the Farm Bill, she said. It will remain zero, or low-cost, in the future unless altered. The only year in the past where it carried a cost was 2013 which was the direct result of Mexico dumping subsidized sugar onto the U.S. market, Stroh added.

According to the American Sugar Alliance, 11,000 beet and cane farmers produce about 9 million tons of sugar a year on 2 million acres. Sugar creates more than 151,000 jobs in America and adds $23.3 billion to the U.S. economy.

— Dave Bonner contributed reporting.