Costly Sugar Subsidies to Increase, Impoverishing the Poor

Congress is set to pass a bloated farm bill that will increase federal sugar subsidies, which have cost taxpayers billions of dollars, and prevent farmers in some of the poorest countries in the world from selling their sugar to the United States at low prices. Even The New York Times thinks President Bush is right to consider vetoing the bill.

In a letter to the House Agriculture Committee joined by public interest and consumer groups, Fran Smith explained that the sugar subsidies will harm the environment, cause job losses, and increase food costs. And in National Review, she explains the bizarre workings of the sugar subsidy program, while in the Monthly Planet, she describes how the program costs thousands of American jobs in the candy manufacturing industry.

In an earlier blog post, I explained how the farm bill as a whole is a big rip-off of American taxpayers, full of corporate welfare, criticized for contributing to pollution and obesity, and an obstacle to negotiating international trade deals that would create jobs in America for our exporters.