Posted on 02/25/2007 3:13:21 PM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
Thanks for the link.
Fanny Farmer is an American candy manufacturer and retailer. Fanny Farmer was started in Rochester, New York by Frank O'Connor in 1919. The company was named in honor of culinary expert Fannie Farmer, who had died four years earlier. In 1992 the Archibald Candy Company acquired the brand (and its 200 retail stores in the northeastern United States) as a sister brand to its own Fannie May candies (sold primarily in the Midwest and mid-Atlantic United States).[1] Alpine Confections purchased both brands in 2004 after Archibald filed for bankruptcy.
And of course, all of the blockheads who voted for the clown have themselves to thank. Yes, I'd bet even many of those union workers voted for the crook. Too bad the US loses jobs, but union members usually vote democratic. Our governor's performance in office has been beyond dismal, he's a complete failure.
Since 1934 the U.S. government has assisted the sugar industry, which has a powerful lobby. Until the late twentieth century, sugar growers had access to extremely lowpaid, non-unionized immigrant workers through a federal "guest worker" program for the industry.
In the early twenty-first century, the sugar industry was receiving $1.6 billion from the U.S. government. Rather than making direct payments to growers, as the Agriculture Department does in other industries, the department gives sugar processors short-term loans, and maintains high domestic prices by strictly limiting imports.
Critics of this policy note that sugar consumers pay two to three times the world market price.
In fiscal year 2000, domestic growers grew more than the government-set limit, and the government had to spend $465 million to buy their excess sugar and cover the cost of processors' loan forfeitures.
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks political campaign contributions, the sugar industry contributes more than one-third of the money that crop production and food processing interests spend on political campaigns. The industry has a growing U.S. market; sugar consumption has practically doubled in the past century, from 86 pounds per U.S. citizen to nearly 160. However, the fortunes of the U.S. sugar industry may change in the wake of the North American Free Trade Agreement, as Mexican imports are likely to flood the U.S. market beginning in fiscal 2004.
Sugar growers, textile manufacturers and labor unions have teamed up with congressional Democrats, seeking to derail a proposed trade agreement with Central America. Failure to ratify that measure could undermine more ambitious efforts to enact broader free trade initiatives encompassing all of the Western Hemisphere and the entire world, experts warn.
Opponents of these free trade initiatives say their opposition stems mostly from wanting to ensure a level playing field or to protect worker rights.
Democrat Governor Ed Rendell is in the pocket of the "jackpot justice" trial lawyers, so tort reform ain't happening. And he's begging for tax increases, so rule out a better business climate or an improving economy. But hey, killing the economy is a major part of the Democrat game plan anyway.
When the economy tanks and people lose their jobs, homes, and savings, they become dependent on government handouts and eventually become addicted to government. And, like drug addicts keep going back to their dealers for a fix, government addicts will likewise keep going back to THEIR dealers. That would be Democrat politicians.
Sabotaging the economy is not suicidal for the Democrats - - it's what they strive for. It's job security.
This ain't rocket surgery.....
How do sugar makers get away with charging that much for sugar? They make sure the government keeps the world’s sugar out of the United States. The U.S. government allows each country’s sugar growers to sell only a certain amount of sugar into the United States. These quotas artificially limit the supply of sugar Americans can buy. This drives up not only the price of a bag of sugar but also of candy bars, soda, and any other food that contains sugar. From 1998 until 2004, American consumers have paid an average of about $1.8 billion more for food annually because of these import quotas. The General Accounting Office (GAO) also estimated that almost half that money goes to large sugar growers, such as the Fanjuls.
The family, through its company Flo-Sun, Inc., and many related companies such as Florida Crystals, controls about one-third of Florida’s sugar production. The Fanjuls, together with their elder in the sugar industry, U.S. Sugar, own a majority of the cane fields in south Florida. These massive corporations might not exist–indeed there might be no sugar cane industry in Florida at all–were it not for corporate welfare.
Enter the next government program from which the Fanjul’s benefit: the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The USDA loans all sugar growers 18 cents for every pound of cane sugar they grow, and beet sugar farmers get about 23 cents a pound. In recent years, these loans have averaged more than $8 billion annually, with the Fanjuls’ receiving an estimated $65 million.
http://tinyurl.com/2mg3ja
I don't find these chocolates cheaper. Do you? Someone is justifying cheap labor.
Good post. I was thinking the same thing - - that most of the union people who are on the verge of losing their jobs at Hershey taped "kick me" signs to their own backs and voted Democrat. Oh well. Adios.
Welfare and free medical is your answer. The Mexicans have never had it so good off the American dollar.
Thank ADM - they bought a bunch of congresscreatures, to ensure that corn syrup is cheaper.
(I am allergic to corn syrup.)
The main question is, is Cadbury cheaper? I haven't found them to be cheaper, have you?
Mary Landrieu:
As it is currently written, this trade agreement
would have a serious and harmful affect on sugar producers in my state.
The sugar industry of Louisiana is not only the economic life blood of
many communities, it is a way of life and a part of who we are.
Mr. Chairman, many of my concerns over this proposed trade
agreement were summed up in a recent letter from Louisiana Governor
Kathleen Blanco to President Bush. Governor Blanco urged the
President to withdraw the trade deal for one simple reason:
CAFTA will
equal job loss and financial despair for 27,000 Louisiana sugar workers
and farmers.
“The economic impact of CAFTA and other bi-lateral trade
agreements on the state will be disastrous. Louisiana stands to lose $750
million in direct sugar sales, as well as $2 billion in industry-related
revenue each year.”
Blanco's-sugar farmers see a massive subsidy in their future. They would have little reason to shop for another candidate when their Governor provided them with the greatest agricultural subsidy since the New Deal.
I work at Chocolate World and want to tell you that the free Tour Ride to see how chocolate is made was just redone and is outstanding. They also have a new 3D movie and an area where kids can go to work on a kisses production line.
I actually don't work for Hershey. I work for the company that takes your picture on the ride and at two other areas. We also have 27 cameras in Hershey Park. Hershey may make great candy but they don't know anything about picture taking.
Now smile, that will be $10.55 please.
Not only that but Big Corn as well. Why do you think High-fructose corn syrup has become the main sweetener in nearly everything?
Welcome to the real corporate world. Like the profits for these companies don't already do well. I believe it to be discrimination beyond belief. It is also destroying the middle class. I have heard some of the companies will pay managers bonuses per person they get rid of. That's insane.
$9.95 at the Bronx Zoo Carousel and the Air Force One exhibit at the Reagan Library.
Wasn't that guy Nagin saying that New Orleans was gonna be a choclate city? Wonder if that has anything to do with this.
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