The Bitter Truth: How the Sugar Lobby Inflates Prices and Impacts the Economy

The sugar lobby is an excellent example of economic entrenchment and control of public policy through congressional lobbyists and PAC (political action committee) donations. The fact is that "the government restricts imports through a series of quotas, pushing U.S. sugar prices to between two and three times the global market rate." Because of this, it is estimated that sugar costs American consumers an extra 2.4 to 3.5 billion per year.

"To protect this cozy arrangement, the sugar barons plow a chunk of their revenue back into the political system. ... Producers' enviable profits come straight out of consumers' wallets, so that ordinary supermarket visitors are made to subsidize welfare for corporations."

The victims of this protectionism are the American public and efficient foreign sugar producers who are "denied a fair chance to export their way out of poverty." The environment also suffers because sugar cane production has contributed to the degradation of the Everglades. This also has real-world effects on other parts of the economy. Many candy manufacturers and producers of products containing sugar have moved their factories abroad to Canada and Mexico, where sugar costs are half the price or lower.

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