Therefore, the U.S. price is now approximatley four times the world price. The sugar cane and sugar beet growing and processing industries are highly mechanized today. Therefore, shifts in sugar production would have little effect on the 50,000 jobs directly related to sugar production. On the other hand, over 500,000 jobs in the food processing industry will directly feel the impact of continued high U.S. sugar prices. Half of the nation's sugar cane refining capacity and its corresponding jobs have already been lost because raw sugar imports are so heavily restricted.
Sugar is still big trouble for the environment.
Since the 1960s, the federal government sugar program has encouraged the conversion of over 500,000 acres of Everglades wetlands to sugar cane production. The government sugar program received no real reform in the 1996 farm bill. The price support loan program was locked in at the 1995 level of 18 cents per pound for raw cane sugar and 22.9 cents per pound for refined beet sugar. And a restrictive low quota on sugar imports remains in place. Sugar growers are the elite among agriculture.