Michigan sugar beet growers unhappy with McCain

We have sugar beet growers in Michigan? Crap it must not be much of an industry. I've been here my whole life and first I have heard of them (and I ain't no spring chicken).

I didn't know it either.

Government statistics show sugar beets accounted for about $111 million of Michigan's $4.2 billion agriculture industry in 2006-07, the most recent year available. VanDrissche said 1,100 farm families in Michigan grow sugar beets in a 21-county crescent that runs from Michigan's Thumb to areas west and north of Bay City. Based on the value of production, Michigan is the nation's fourth-largest producer of sugar beets, with about 145,000 acres planted this year.

To VanDrissche, McCain's opposition to the sugar tariff is one reason that many of the state's sugar beet growers back Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. McCain also is opposed to ethanol subsidies and the $300 billion federal farm bill, which he called "bloated" this summer.
McCain's opposition to sugar tariffs has been a sore subject with the sugar industry. Sugar beets are a major commodity in Minnesota, North Dakota, Idaho and Michigan, and also are grown in California, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska, Oregon and Washington state. Sugar cane is grown in Florida, Louisiana, Hawaii and Texas.

Maybe the farmers in ALL these States will think twice and vote differently this year. Farming is one of the few local industries left in America.

The media has to MAKE UP negative stories about McCain...they don't like that the race is so close. They will do anything to bad mouth the Republicans.

Seeking truth wrote:

I didn't know it either.
Government statistics show sugar beets accounted for about $111 million of Michigan's $4.2 billion agriculture industry in 2006-07, the most recent year available. VanDrissche said 1,100 farm families in Michigan grow sugar beets in a 21-county crescent that runs from Michigan's Thumb to areas west and north of Bay City. Based on the value of production, Michigan is the nation's fourth-largest producer of sugar beets, with about 145,000 acres planted this year.
To VanDrissche, McCain's opposition to the sugar tariff is one reason that many of the state's sugar beet growers back Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. McCain also is opposed to ethanol subsidies and the $300 billion federal farm bill, which he called "bloated" this summer.
McCain's opposition to sugar tariffs has been a sore subject with the sugar industry. Sugar beets are a major commodity in Minnesota, North Dakota, Idaho and Michigan, and also are grown in California, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska, Oregon and Washington state. Sugar cane is grown in Florida, Louisiana, Hawaii and Texas.
Maybe the farmers in ALL these States will think twice and vote differently this year. Farming is one of the few local industries left in America.

Da mm I am going to go out and get me a sugar beet. I like beets and I like sugar so it should be a slam dunk for me.

Don't worry about it folks.

It's all about tariffs protecting farmers from competition so that you pay more for sugar than a open market would have you do.

It's those regulations again or CRONY CAPITALISM of screwing Joe Public so pols can get campaign contributions and jobs for their relatives.

NY Dr Spock wrote:

<quoted text>
Da mm I am going to go out and get me a sugar beet. I like beets and I like sugar so it should be a slam dunk for me.

You'll be doing yourself a favor by substituting it for the high fructose corn syrup that you are eating, I mean with which you are poisoning yourself.

Brazil is energy independent because of its sugar cane. Why can't we do better than Brazil?

x-nutmegger wrote:

Don't worry about it folks.
It's all about tariffs protecting farmers from competition so that you pay more for sugar than a open market would have you do.
It's those regulations again or CRONY CAPITALISM of screwing Joe Public so pols can get campaign contributions and jobs for their relatives.

NO. It's the lack of and aversion to regulations that put us in the mess where we are today. If open markets are bringing down the cost of sugar, then why is it so hard to find products made with sugar, instead of poisonous high fructose corn syrup?

Thought you'd appreciate this...

CHICAGO

Body count. In the last six months 292 killed (murdered) in Chicago , 221 killed in Iraq.

Sens. Barack Obama & Dick Durbin, Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., Gov. Rod Blogojevich, House leader Mike Madigan, Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan, Mayor Richard Daley.....our leadership in Illinois .....all Democrats.

Thank you for the combat zone in Chicago. Of course they're all blaming each other. Can't blame Republicans, there aren't any!

State pension fund $44 Billion in debt, worst in country. Cook County (Chicago) sales tax 10.25% highest in country.

Chicago school system one of the worst in country. This is the political culture that Obama comes from in Illinois . He's gonna 'fix' Washington politics?

A couple of things:

Sugarbeet farms in Michigan contract 100% of their product to processors, which is why you have never seen a sugarbeet here.

By next year, virtually all of Michigan's sugarbeets will be Genetically Modified, so if you are wary of Genetically Modified Food, you should now be wary of any product containing sugar. Another problem is that beets are open pollinated and cross easily with their cousins swiss chard and table beets.

As far as the comment about energy independence:
there is a reason sugarbeets are so highly subsidized. It's because they cannot possibly compete with sugarcane which is a fast growing, high biomass tropical crop. The potential of beets for biofuels is practically nil.

Also, doing 'better' than Brazil is relative. Sure they use less petroleum in their cars, but sugarcane production is energy intensive, and ecologically unsustainable. It requires huge fertilizer inputs which are produced somewhere else with - guess what - fossil fuels. Millions of acres of tropical rain forest, have also been cleared for cane production since the biofuels policy was put in place, and many poor farmers and indigenous peoples displaced.

Nothing is free.

Michigan is now a muslin state. Deal with it.

MrBigsby wrote:

Michigan is now a muslin state. Deal with it.

Muslin - noun - a cotton fabric made in various degrees of fineness and often printed, woven, or embroidered in patterns, esp. a cotton fabric of plain weave, used for sheets and for a variety of other purposes.

I'll try to deal with it as best I can. Thank you for the insight.