Sugar Subsidies

Sugar smackdown: Former Congressman calls out ‘oligarchy’

July 31, 2025

That’s gonna leave a mark! Former Florida Congressman Francis Rooney (at right) slapped Big Sugar with a rhetorical 2×4 last week, calling out the industry — and the Trump Administration — for pushing policies that reward their political cronies while…

Ag Secretary visits Clewiston as Big Sugar billionaires get richer

July 24, 2025

No doubt about it — one of the big winners in the President’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” was Big Sugar. And U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins’ visit to Clewiston Monday proved it. Rollins met with Big Sugar employees…

Big, beautiful… benefit to Big Sugar

June 5, 2025

Reconciliation bill looks like another giveaway to the sugar industry Federal lawmakers still haven’t passed a new, updated Farm Bill. But some agricultural programs look like they’ll be part of President Trump’s “One Big, Beautiful Bill” — including, you guessed…

SUGAR SUED: Florida Crystals target of class-action suit claiming company misleads on climate change

March 26, 2025

A California woman has filed a class-action lawsuit against Florida Crystals, claiming the company’s practice of sugarcane burning contradicts claims that its farming practices fight climate change. As the Palm Beach Post reports, “The lawsuit, filed on behalf of California…

HEY DOGE, wanna cut waste? Kill the Sugar Program

March 6, 2025

As you’ve no doubt seen, the Department of Government Efficiency has been swinging the budgetary ax, cutting a wide swath in its quest to eliminate “waste.” So we have a suggestion for Elon Musk and his crew: Kill the Sugar…

Will Rubio’s replacement fight for cleaner water?

November 14, 2024

Looks like Sen. Marco Rubio could be moving on up. And that could have a big impact on the clean-water cause. As first reported last weekend, President-Elect Donald Trump is set to nominate Rubio Secretary of State.  If so —…

Final tally: Big Sugar spent $3.6 million on state politics in 2023

February 2, 2024

The final numbers are in — and they’re big. In 2023, Big Sugar political spending in Florida totaled over $3.6 million, with the vast majority — $2.9 million — coming from industry giant U.S. Sugar. Florida Crystals chipped in just…

Dirty money alert: Next Florida Senate President gets thousands from Big Sugar

July 18, 2023

Update: Sen. Albritton got even MORE sugar money than we realized! Below, we report on a $25,000 contribution from U.S. Sugar to Florida Sen. Ben Albritton’s campaign committee, Friends of Ben Albritton. The report is true and correct. But the…

How the federal Sugar Program leads to dirtier water

April 6, 2023

If the federal government treated you the way it treats Big Sugar — life would be sweet indeed. Federal policy in the form of the Sugar Program — part of the Farm Bill, which is reauthorized every five or so…

Un-endorsement: Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick said she wouldn’t take sugar money – then did

August 19, 2022

Our survey question to Congressional candidates this cycle was pretty simple: Special interests like Florida’s powerful sugar industry spend lavishly to influence elections, with “Big Sugar,” the phosphate mining industry and big utilities, among others, spending hundreds of millions of…

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