But they say the decision to create a smaller reservoir is supported by science. A larger one, they say, would lose more water to evaporation than would be saved. The engineers and ecologists who put together the plan deny that the sugar industry was given special treatment. Sugar executives point out that environmentalists and urban interests were also at the table lobbying. I think we are all pretty comfortable that we will be there for a long time.
Most people working for the sugar corporations regard themselves as victims of changing attitudes.
When Napolean Bonaparte Broward won the race for Governor in 1907, he ran on a promise to drain the swamps in south Florida and reclaim it for farmland. Now it's restoration. They were reclaiming swampland, and now we are restoring a delicate ecosystem. At least 200 family farms are in the district, but more than 80 percent of the sugar is produced by two large companies. Mich. It has operated farms here since 1928.