The American Sugar Alliance.

The American Sugar Alliance, a national coalition of farmers, processors and refiners of sugarbeets, sugarcane, and corn for sweetener, was applauding Congress earlier this month for defeating what U.S. sugar farmers deemed to be an anti-sugar amendment to the Farm Bill. The Alliance noted that

with its farmers already reeling from prices at a 20-year-low, the amendment, which was defeated by a vote of 239 to 177, would have effectively reduced the price-floor for sugar from 18 cents to 15 cents a pound, driving even more American sugar farmers out of business. A total of 17 sugar mills and plants have closed in the United States since 1996. With the amendment defeated, the farm bill proceeds to, among other things, reauthorize a non-recourse loan program through 2011 at 18 cents per pound for raw cane sugar and 22.9 cents per pound for refined beet sugar, which is essentially the same level since 1985.