Preserving the sweet life in Minnesota

To make a living growing sugar beets, you need the conditions to be just right. Rich, fertile soil. A long, cool fall. Plenty of rainfall.  And a lot of help from the United States federal government. Minnesota’s got those first parts covered: the area centered around the Red River has the richest land and best climate for sugar beets in the U.S., making one of the most productive growing regions in the world. Those things won’t change, at least not anytime soon. But what could change is the other thing you need to profit from sugar beets: deep commitment from Uncle Sam to support this industry. The federal government effectively subsidizes the business of sugar beets through a set of policies — collectively referred to as the sugar program — that Congress has approved largely without incident since the early 1980s in its twice-a-decade farm bills. Without the sugar program, beet farmers and their allies say that their industry would wither and maybe even die, outperformed by competitors like Mexico and Brazil, who strongly subsidize their sugar industries and employ aggressive trade policies.