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Here are 3 ways to help us achieve Sugar Reform Now

https://youtu.be/k_OeECca6wI SUGAR REFORM NOW Our mission to save the only Everglades in the world can only be realized if we stop allowing the sugar industry to profit from poisoning this treasured ecosystem. You can help us achieve that. The sugar program in the U.S. Farm Bill is an outdated, overly generous system of price supports and import quotas that enrich billionaire backed sugar companies — namely Florida Crystals and U.S. Sugar. The Farm Bill is set to expire this year, and we need a loud chorus of voices speaking up for reform.  Here are three things you can do to help us achieve Sugar Reform Now: Watch the video: Our 30-second video visually illustrates the negative impact of the [...]

2023-08-28T17:15:03-04:00August 29th, 2023|Action Alerts, All Posts, Big Sugar, Farm Bill|
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The case for sugar reform is resonating on Capitol Hill

In late July, we took our fight for sugar reform to Washington, D.C., where we met with members of Congress and their staff to educate them on the damaging impacts of the sugar industry that are supported via the U.S. Farm Bill.  We traveled across the U.S. Capitol grounds to meet with Democratic and Republican members of Congress from around the country who heard our plea for a change in the 2023 Farm Bill. Our case was made stronger by you and thousands of others who have signed the Sugar Reform Now petition. The leaders we met with were struck by the water and air pollution linked to the sugar industry in Florida. They listened to how the [...]

2023-08-08T11:05:33-04:00August 8th, 2023|All Posts, Big Sugar, Farm Bill, Sugarcane Burning, Toxic Algae, U.S. Congress|
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TAKE ACTION: Tell Congress to end damaging sugar protections in the Farm Bill

For the better part of a century, the U.S. Farm Bill has protected billionaire-backed sugar companies at the expense of clean air and water in Florida. We have an opportunity to change that now — with your help. Join the movement demanding an end to sugar handouts in the Farm Bill by signing the Sugar Reform Now petition!  How does the sugar program negatively impact us?  Through price supports and strict import limits on sugar, consumers and taxpayers pay more — while sugar barons get richer. Windfall profits generated by the sugarcane industry, led by Florida Crystals and U.S. Sugar, are then used to buy influence over lawmakers. This protects the status quo that forces South Florida taxpayers to [...]

2023-07-14T16:27:40-04:00July 17th, 2023|Action Alerts, All Posts, Big Sugar, Everglades Restoration, Farm Bill, Human Health and Safety, Lake Okeechobee, Red Tide, Sugarcane Burning, Toxic Algae, U.S. Congress|
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Everglades Illustrated: This is how many sugarcane burning permits are issued in a single day

Last week, Friends of the Everglades Executive Director Eve Samples took to the air with a volunteer LightHawk pilot to survey sugarcane burning in the Everglades Agricultural Area south of Lake Okeechobee. It didn’t take long to find what they were looking for. Within five minutes of takeoff, they spotted several large burns, with smoke and ash blowing westward toward the Glades communities of Belle Glade, South Bay, Pahokee and Clewiston. Elsewhere in South Florida, it was a blue-sky day. But above the Glades, it looked like twilight due to the smoke, known to locals in the Glades as “black snow.” The burns produced so much smoke that the plumes showed up as rain on the LightHawk pilot’s radar. Keep [...]

2023-04-10T16:45:10-04:00April 11th, 2023|Action Alerts, Big Sugar, Everglades Illustrated, Stop Sugarcane Burning, Sugarcane Burning|
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Help us reform the U.S. Sugar Program

A sugarcane field burns in the distance in the Everglades Agricultural Area on Jan. 6, 2023, in Palm Beach County. We need your help. For decades, Big Sugar has received a sweet deal in the federal Farm Bill — despite its damaging influence on Florida’s water policy and pollution of our air through sugarcane burning. We have an opportunity to change that by urging lawmakers in Washington to end the sugar program in the upcoming Farm Bill. The Farm Bill, which is reauthorized every five years by Congress, covers issues such as agriculture, nutrition, conservation, forestry, and rural development. The federal government underwrites Big Sugar’s profits through the sugar program in the Farm Bill. It's an outdated [...]

2023-03-30T06:49:02-04:00March 29th, 2023|Action Alerts, Action Alerts, Big Sugar, Farm Bill, Florida Legislative Tracker, Sugarcane Burning|
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Everglades Illustrated: Eye on Toxic-Algae Season

It's summer in Florida, AKA toxic-algae season. Around the world, regional shifts in temperature and weather mark the start of fall and winter, spring and summer. But here in Florida, visitors and residents have become accustomed to another season that coincides with heavy rains and longer, hotter days of summer: toxic-algae season. In the satellite image above from National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, a neon green mass accumulates in the northwest portion of Lake Okeechobee, spanning the western shoreline in a bloom that covers 160 square miles. If you’ve lived in Florida long, or have followed the news in recent years, the image evokes a familiar wariness that has become common across the sunshine state from mid-May to mid-October, [...]

2022-06-14T10:24:20-04:00June 14th, 2022|Big Sugar, Everglades Illustrated, Toxic Algae|
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