Thomas Foley: “Dismantling the U.S. sugar program will not save the Everglades. Sugarcane, the plant, is still the most benign crop…”

“Dismantling the U.S. sugar program will not save the Everglades. Sugarcane, the plant, is still the most benign crop grown in the Everglades agricultural area, requiring less water than rice, releasing fewer polluting nutrients than vegetables or cattle pastures. Studies show that the crops that might supplant sugarcane would pose a greater threat to the environment and, if the land became fallow, it would be quickly overtaken by melaleuca and Brazilian pepper. Reducing the price of sugar as the amendment would suggest will not create a consumer benefit. Reject this amendment. It is about jobs, as the gentleman from Florida said. It is about a bill that was fairly negotiated on this floor. They lost. They should accept their defeat. Protect the program. Defeat Miller-Schumer.”