Sugarcane looks to Senate after House passes farm bill

Louisiana's sugarcane growers are pleased that the United States House of Representatives maintained current, no-cost sugar policy in the farm bill passed on Thursday, said Jim Simon of the American Sugar Cane League.

"Having a strong safety net in place for the next five years is very important to Louisiana's sugarcane producers," Simon said. "It creates a stability for producers to obtain the financing necessary to grow and process sugarcane on a large-scale basis."

Simon said Louisiana representatives Ralph Abraham of Congressional District 5 and Steve Scalise of District 1 were instrumental in getting the necessary votes to defeat an attack on sugar policy last month.

"Representative Abraham is Louisiana's only member of the House Agriculture Committee," Simon said. "Representative Scalise, in his role as House Majority Whip, worked very hard to get the votes supporting Louisiana's sugarcane farmers and the state's agricultural interests. Congressmen Garret Graves, Clay Higgins and Cedric Richmond worked their tails off fighting for Louisiana farmers.We're very grateful to all of these sugar champions.

"Now we call on the Senate to treat our farmers fairly and ward off any attempts that would hurt the national sugar industry or bankrupt our growers and idle our mills."