Sugar Subsidies
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…
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…
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…
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…
At VoteWater, one of our core issues has always been the corrupting influence of money in politics. Political campaigns require funding, and everyone is entitled to give as they see fit. Yet the reality is, the biggest corporate entities give…
Dear Mike Rowe: First, we’re big fans of your show “How America Works,” and in particular your focus on the men and women in the trenches, rather than the bigwigs in the C-suites. Your recent program, “Behind the Scenes with…
Florida Sportsman publisher – and VoteWater Board President – Blair Wickstrom makes the case: In 2020 alone, Florida’s sugar industry — the home of Big Sugar — put at least $11 million into congressional campaign coffers. This happened on both…
This commentary was first published in late April, by Ryan Smart of the Florida Springs Council – no relation to VoteWater Executive Director Gil Smart – as a depressing post-mortem on this year’s legislative session: Going into the 2022 legislative…
It looked like there was a real wedge between the two most powerful Republicans in Florida – Gov. Ron DeSantis and current Senate President Wilton Simpson, who’s running for state Agriculture Commissioner. But they’ve kissed and made up. And that…