WASHINGTON — The Bush administration reportedly is pushing
Congress to limit overall subsidies for farmers. It won’t be easy.
Agricultural interests like the sugar industry constantly push for
more. In its view, you can never get enough from consumers and
taxpayers. Collect subsidies. Ban trade. Outlaw your competitors.
Let the American people pay.
These aren’t good times for the sugar lobby. Sales were down 4.3
percent last year and 1.8 percent in 2003. The industry was
disappointed that the new federal dietary guidelines continue to
recommend limiting sugar consumption.
Sugar Association president Andy Briscoe acknowledges that
“sugar has an image problem.” The Association is running ads
touting the fact that there are only 15 calories in a teaspoon of
sugar.
Opined Briscoe: “We stand firm in our assertion that every major
scientific review, including the Institute of Medicine’s
macronutrient report, has concluded that there is not a direct link
between added sugars intake and any lifestyle disease, including
obesity.”
That’s true. Sugar doesn’t cause obesity. Consuming too much
sugar-laden food and drink causes obesity.
Which is why sugar substitutes are a godsend for many Americans.
With most diets drenched in calories, Equal, Sweet ‘N Low, and
Splenda all offer a modest respite. Which is bad in the sugar
lobby’s view.
So the Sugar Association has done the American thing — sued
McNeil Nutritionals, Splenda’s maker. The sugar lobby charged
McNeil with false advertising and unfair competition for saying
that Splenda is “made from sugar” and using the line, “What are
little girls made of? Splenda and spice and everything nice.”
Actually, sucralose is sucrose, chemically modified. And it
seems doubtful that this creative take-off of the old rhyme is why
McNeil is taking sales away from the sugar producers. With
Splenda’s yellow packet routinely sitting next to Equal’s blue and
Sweet ‘N Low’s pink ones, few consumers could believe that they are
getting sugar.
Nevertheless, the sugar industry wants damages and injunctive
relief. And the Sugar Association hasn’t stopped with a
lawsuit.
The sugar lobby also has asked the Federal Trade Commission to
investigate McNeil’s supposedly misleading marketing campaign.
Moreover, the Association hired the PR firm Qorvis Communications
to create a website touting the “truth about Splenda.”
Qorvis didn’t put it quite that way, of course. Instead it
announced that “a group of concerned consumers, led by
sugar cane and sugar beet farmers across America” launched the
website.
Ah, yes. Sugar cane and sugar beet farmers. They have done quite
well over the years, mulcting the taxpayers for fun and profit.
THE CURRENT SUGAR PROGRAM was established in 1981. When he traded
his support for another bill in return for the Reagan
Administration’s backing for the sugar payoff, then Rep. John
Breaux (D-La.) famously opined that his vote was “rented,” not
bought.
The loan guarantee program has been costing around $200 million
a year. Alas, outlays can go higher: in 2000 the Agriculture
Department bought in excess of a million tons of sugar, which cost
$1 million a month simply to store, and spent $465 million to pay
farmers to destroy their sugar crops.
When Congress reauthorized the program in the 2002 Farm Bill, it
cut penalties on farmers who forfeited their sugar, boosting
industry winnings by another half billion dollars. In addition,
Washington spends an extra $90 million a year to pay for
higher-priced sugar-laden products as part of its feeding
programs.
A fifth of farmers collect 60 percent of the benefits. One
company alone has been estimated to receive $65 million. And
driving up prices — to as much as five times the world level —
has pushed manufacturers to substitutes, such as high-fructose corn
syrup, decimating the domestic refining industry (12 of 22
refineries closed over the last two decades).
But the industry still wants more. The Bush administration has
been pushing to increase American commerce abroad with the Central
American Free Trade Agreement. The Sugar Association naturally came
out against the accord.
OF COURSE, THE INDUSTRY-SPONSORED “truth” website does not mention
what really is at stake: propping up industry profits. Although
Qorvis claims that it is making no health claims, the website
declares that “no one can say with certainty that the substance is
safe to eat” and points to safety complaints from nanny-state
groups which attack most every food and drink that people
enjoy.
Splenda is used by thousands of products and millions of people,
and no problems have appeared. Yet can we be certain?
If the safety standard for products was “certainty,” we would
have little to eat or drink. It is impossible to prove a
negative.
But scores of studies have attested to Splenda’s safety. The
sweetener also has been approved by the Canadian Health Protection
Branch and Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives of the World
Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization, as
well as the Food and Drug Administration.
With little evidence on its side, the sugar lobby simply pounds
the table. “It’s up to parents to decide whether their children
should drink chlorine compounds,” says Qorvis’ Rich Masters.
A cute smear, that one. If Splenda isn’t sugar, as the sugar
producers claim, then it certainly isn’t chlorine. Let’s face it,
there isn’t much one might want to eat — hotdogs, say — after
reading a label of full of bizarre-sounding ingredients. Yet the
products are perfectly safe.
“Take ACTION!” demands the sugar lobby. Yes, indeed, the
American people should take action. They should back the
administration effort to limit federal agriculture spending. They
certainly should end the sweet deal that the sugar producers enjoy
at consumer and taxpayer expense.
Moreover, Americans should ensure that the sugar industry
doesn’t restrict their choices any further. The Sugar Association’s
PR campaign against Splenda is the worst sort of special interest
pleading.
Should you use sugar or an artificial sweetener? If you choose
the latter, should it be Splenda? There’s no right answer. But it
should be up to you, not the sugar lobby.
