Dear editor:

My daily prayers are that American farmers have a good year where they produce safe food and fiber for people of this great country. U.S. farmers have proven to feed our people and provide food for many around the world.

More than 100 countries produce sugar beets or sugar cane. The sugar cane sector produces about 80% of the world’s sugar demand, and India is the largest sugar cane producer.

In the United States, the sugar beet and sugar cane industries need each other to maintain balanced sugar production for the benefit of American taxpayers. To meet America’s sugar needs, the United States Department of Agriculture, or USDA, monitors the amount of sugar produced domestically, along with sugar supplied by more than 41 foreign countries that have been given access, through trade agreements, to import sugar into the U.S. market at, or close to, duty-free rates.

America provides market access to 41 countries and is the world’s biggest sugar importer, which explains why so many developing countries support the current U.S. sugar policy.

My mother used to advise us about the lessons history can teach us. Looking back at the history of this beloved country, America was once largely dependent on foreign nations for sugar.

Sugar was rationed 84 years ago during World War II. After the war, the U.S. government encouraged sugar production at home to make sure Americans were never again without this critical food ingredient.

History taught us another important lesson in 1974, when the U.S. Sugar Act expired. The world price of sugar skyrocketed to 60 cents per pound, and American consumers suffered. Then, the price dropped to 3 cents per pound, forcing many sugar beet and sugar cane farmers out of business. However, consumers did not see savings in their food prices.

These examples show why it is important for the United States to protect a strong and reliable domestic sugar supply.

To protect taxpayers from unstable sugar prices and supply insecurity, Congress included a sugar program in the Farm Bill in 1981. This program stabilized the price at a reasonable level and assured American consumers, along with large sugar users such as candy, cereal and soft drink makers, a reliable and high-quality supply of pure, natural sugar.

The last Farm Bill, passed in 2018, expired in September, 2023 and is currently running on one-year extensions. Congress negotiates a new Farm Bill every five years. The 2023 Farm Bill was extended in to be negotiated in 2024 and has a price tag of $1.5 trillion attached to it.

A flood of imported, subsidized foreign sugar is putting American farms and jobs at risk and jeopardizing the secure supply chain for sugar.

On April 30, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026. Now it will be taken to the United States Senate. Hopefully by the end of 2026, we will have a Farm Bill.

Looking back to the history of sugar beet production in America is very impressive to me. Most sugar beet crops are grown in the western part of the United States. In 1902, federal irrigation projects were authorized by President Theodore Roosevelt to build dams and irrigation systems to grow crops and help populate the western states. Sugar beets became one of the major crops grown by flood irrigation methods in cooler temperature areas.

Today, 9 million tons of sugar are produced each year by 11,000 beet and cane farmers on 2 million acres. Sugar creates more than 151,000 U.S. jobs in more than two dozen states and adds more than $23 billion to the U.S. economy.

The states that produce sugar beets include Michigan, Montana, Idaho, Washington, Colorado, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Oregon, California and my state of Wyoming. Approximately 1,100,000 acres are used for sugar beet production.

To understand why sugar policy matters, it is also important to understand the work and cost involved in producing sugar here at home.

The process of making sugar from sugar beets starts with the sugar beet seed companies, which provide certified beet seeds to growers. The cost of sugar beet seed is between $250 and $300 per acre, mainly because of EPA and safety regulations. Fertilizer costs more than $280 per acre.

American farmers’ operating margins are being squeezed each year due to rising labor, fuel, seed, fertilizer, equipment and interest rate costs. My husband, Rick, and I grow our crops with flood irrigation, and the cost of fuel at more than $5 per gallon is unbelievable.

American farmers are some of the most efficient farmers in the world in their practices, but we must keep in mind today’s high cost of production. For sugar beet farmers in irrigated areas, production costs can be between $1,300 and $1,500 per acre.

Farming is a business, just like any other business. The cost of production has to be covered by the price of the commodity in order for farmers to keep farming. It is hard for any business to operate in the red. Low commodity prices drive American farmers out of production and into bankruptcy.

According to the American Sugar Alliance, 110 foreign countries subsidize their sugar production, consumption and trade in some way. This makes sugar one of the most heavily subsidized and therefore distorted markets in the world.

Brazil, India and Thailand are the largest sugar exporters in the world. They all heavily subsidize their own sugar producers, which helps drive global prices below the cost of production. India sugar producers received $17.6 Billion in sugar subsidies last year

Please bear in mind our U.S. sugar producers support this kind of subsidy-free, free-trade system. It’s known as the Zero-for-Zero sugar policy by U.S. it operates at no-cost to U.S. consumers. America provides market access to 41 countries and is the world’s biggest importer, which explains why so many developing countries support the current U.S. sugar policy.

Passing a Farm Bill is a critical step forward in ensuring we do not offshore our family farms or American food production.

United States farmers are the hand that feeds us and most of the world.

Sincerely,

Klodette Stroh

Powell, National sugar chairman, Women Involved in Farm Economics