Dave Camp: “Sugar is an essential and even strategic ingredient in our Nation's food supply, yet we are the fourth largest importer…”

“Sugar is an essential and even strategic ingredient in our Nation's food supply, yet we are the fourth largest importer of sugar in the world. The United States sugar industry is in trouble. I know firsthand because I represent thousands of family farmers and factory workers who grow and process sugar beets in Michigan. Sugar prices have plummeted over the past 2 years, and family farmers are facing a monumental challenge. Almost half of the remaining sugar beet factories in the United States are currently for sale, for sale to the farmers who grow sugar beets. Given the depressed sugar market and the overall agricultural economy, our family farmers cannot form farmer-owned cooperatives. This is an industry that is the very backbone of the rural economy. We must not and cannot let it collapse. The Miller amendment will end any opportunity for these farmers and factory workers to be reliable and competitive suppliers to America's consumers. The Miller amendment will cut the supply lines of an essential ingredient and deliver another economic blow to America's struggling rural economy. Vote against the Miller amendment.”