Sugar beet farmers in N. Dakota are pissed off with Bush.....

[Gloria]

Of course, I had to hear the extensive report about this on ABC Radio Australia!!!

Seems there have been negotiaions on free trade involving not only Central America, but also Australia. So Australian sugar will be dumped here cheaply and will undercut American sugar. There over supply of American sugar already.

So, the farmers thought they had a friend in Bush when he was running. Now they feel betrayed. They're also surprised that in with all the cane production in FL, Jebbie's state, that Bush didn't seem to care about that either.

The last word is that this farmers' spokesman said the there won't be much support for Bush in N. Dakota (and Minnesota, I think) among the sugar beet farmers.

Another bunch screwed by Bush.....

[aquart]

1. Australia's price for being part of the "Coalition"?

[Timefortruth]

2. They will vote for him anyway.

nt

[NicoleM]

3. There aren't enough beet farmers in ND

to make a difference in swinging the state away from * next year, even if they all vote for the Dem nominee.

I know some beet farmers in MN and they were anti-Bush long before this.

[finecraft]

4. Sugarcane farmers in Louisiana are pissed too!

They staged a protest in New Orleans on Friday outside the world trade center, and from what I hear, they will be doing something at the Sugar Bowl also. They feel *Bush lied to them, and they can't understand why he would do that. LOL! I told them, "Welcome to the club"!

[PackedForPerth]

5. We shouldn't be producing sugar...

unless we can compete in the world market...

Why should sugar be any different than anything else?

Besides, I hate "corn sweeteners". They suck!

[wuushew]

6. I Agree but many Dems support agricultural subsidees

A voter angry over losing his job seems to trumph the mild rational agreement that proper free trade results in more efficient use of resources and money saved in the long run.

[PackedForPerth]

7. "my way of life"

I guess I've had to learn how to do entirely new things and trim my sails to new markets so often that I just haven't got a lot of sympathy or patience with people who make "my way of life" code for "I want to do just what I'm doing without changes and I want my grandchildren to be able to as well".

[BrotherBuzz]

8. republicans farmers like agricultural subsidies, too...

they just don't like calling it corporate welfare...

[PackedForPerth]

9. Another bunch screwed by Bush.....

It was a dirty job and Bush was just the guy to do it, I guess. Everybody else in either party has been terrified of the sugar lobby since long before I was born. As a result we've paid quite a respectable multiple of the world sugar price for most of a century and had to choke down "corn sweetners" instead of cane sugar in most every canned product you'd care to name.

I just wish they'd tell the US sugar industry that they've got five years to find some other line of business then drop the bloody sugar tariffs completely. Bush hasn't got that kind of nerve though. I don't think anybody has.

[wuushew]

10. Great minds think alike

but I would use 5-10 years for the phase out, and perhaps guarantee a income based on a start year. The government would give you what you earned in the first year of the ban until the grace period experied.

This needs to be done with tobacco NOW. How much money is being pissed away both trying to get people to stop smoking and paying farmers money to grow a product that is 100% lethal.

[PackedForPerth]

11. 5-10 years...

Nothing ever gets phased out in ten years. The affected industry just uses the time to buy enough politicians to get the policy changed. That's what big steel has been doing for thirty-odd years.

[wuushew]

12. Right but not all those who benefit from subsidees are big businesses

I don't think dairy farmers should recieve the benefits of articifically high milk prices. I know several farmers and don't think they could get back on their feet without a semblence of a grace period. That being said their is no economic reason they have for doing what they do. Cut them off overnight and you guarantee losing all their votes. I am willing to compromise if supporting Lousania Dems who have sold out to big sugar means blocking an illegal invasion in the future or stopping a right-wing judge appointee.

[PackedForPerth]

13. Oh yes!

I am willing to compromise if supporting Lousania Dems who have sold out to big sugar means blocking an illegal invasion in the future or stopping a right-wing judge appointee.

Yup, that's the kind of Faustian deal people are willing to make that the sugar lobby has been making use of ever since the Spanish-American War. It sure has distorted out the commodity price of sugar enormously. Look around and you will see many more examples of that sort of thing. The sugar thing is, however, a particularly egregious one.