Life Savers takes business to Canada over sugar costs

The Chicago Tribune ^ | January 30, 2002 | Tim Jones

[Willie Green]

HOLLAND, Mich. -- Showtime begins at sundown when the giant metal roll of Life Savers lights up. Then, atop the sole plant producing Life Savers in the United States, the 25-foot revolving replica of the popular hard candy flashes the fluorescent colors of its fruit flavors. This goes on all night, every night.

[Willie Green]

Related thread: Lost, 54 Miles of Candy a Day

[Willie Green]

Bad enough that our nation is so dependent on imported oil that we have to partake in ever more frequent military actions to assure a steady supply.

Now the globaloney "free" traders want to jeopardize production of a staple of our food supply.

[JoeGar]

Good post. Those ignorant weenies in Congress will drive large milk consumers abroad next.

[aruanan]

This is death by sugar. Although Kraft officials cited several reasons for the decision to shutter the 600-employee plant, the high cost of sugar that has led to the closure of candy producers in Chicago in the last several years was a major factor.

Thank the domestic sugar lobby. Things were so ridiculous that at one point it was cheaper for some companies to import ready made mixes, extract the sugar, and throw everything else away, than to buy sugar at govt. fixed prices. This is also why there is no longer sugar sweetened soft drinks (unless you buy it in Hawaii where Coke is still sweetened with cane sugar instead of corn syrup). Archer Daniels Midland has made out like a bandit from corn syrup sales.

[bluefish]

Hah! I'd love to see the bogus, government subsidized sugar industry destroyed by their own artifically government inflated pricing and protection scheme. If we lived in a free market, we would allow things like Stevia to be labeled as a sweetener and perhaps less people would be harmed by the bogus sugar crap that is heaped upon us.

Get the government out of our food.

[balrog666]

This [sugar program] is tampering with the market

No, it has already destroyed the domestic market for the sole benefit of a few, well-connected, politician-buying Florida sugar growers who would otherwise never make a profit. Now they make 10's of millions a year by strangling the economies of sugar exporting countries in Central America and the Caribbean. Bravo, stalwart politicians!

[bluefish]

Hmmmm.. Corn Syrup Sales. Is that the real reason sugar prices are kept so high? A reasonable and believable conspiracy theory that I hadn't even thought about or was aware of. You seem to know a little more about it than me. Perhaps my initial comments should be revised after learning more.

[sinkspur]

Now the globaloney "free" traders want to jeopardize production of a staple of our food supply.

See what tariffs do, Willie?

When protected raw materials get too expensive, companies pick up and move where raw materials are cheaper.

The sugar program is ridiculous and ought to be scrapped.

Americans can't even get a decent Coca-Cola anymore because the high cost of sugar forces the use of corn syrup!

[aruanan]

Hmmmm.. Corn Syrup Sales. Is that the real reason sugar prices are kept so high? A reasonable and believable conspiracy theory that I hadn't even thought about or was aware of.

Very good idea! I wonder if the corn syrup producers have a deal going with sugar cane producers. Both of them benefit by keeping out cheap imported sugar or by making it as expensive as American sugar.

[Willie Green]

Thank the domestic sugar lobby.

You mean the ba$tard transnational corporations who purchase sugar: ADM, Coca-Cola, Pepsi-Co, Kraft, etc, etc.

They're the @$$holes who circumvent our agriculture policies for profit and jeopardize our food supply.

Do you think they pass along the savings they obtain from the subsidized glut on the world market to the consumer? Horsedung!

[SKI NOW]

"...A reasonable and believable conspiracy theory that I hadn't even thought about or was aware of. "

And I bet you thought that all of that sponsership of PBS programming (News Hour) by ADM was a mere coincidence.

[Willie Green]

See what tariffs do, Willie?

Did you see the American deaths your beloved, globalist open borders policy allowed on 9/11, sinky?

Doesn't it just make you salivate at the prospect of making us dependent on Castro's friggin' sugar?

[bluefish]

Naahh, I've always known about plenty of ADM evil. Just never spotted the corn syrup sales / inflated sugar prices connection. Makes sense now. Could never figure out why the gov gave that big a crap about sugar.

[sinkspur]

You mean the ba$tard transnational corporations who purchase sugar: ADM, Coca-Cola, Pepsi-Co, Kraft, etc, etc.

They're the @$$holes who circumvent our agriculture policies for profit and jeopardize our food supply.

You mean companies, operating in a free market,"Circumvent our agriculture policies for (gasp)profit?"

What's next, Willie? You want to FORCE companies to buy high-priced Florida sugar?

You and Pat sure want to control the market, don't you?

[sinkspur]

Doesn't it just make you salivate at the prospect of making us dependent on Castro's friggin' sugar?

Control HUMANS at the borders, Willie.

Let the sugar in.

[SKI NOW]

"You mean the ba$tard transnational corporations who purchase sugar: ADM, Coca-Cola, Pepsi-Co, Kraft, etc, etc."

Don't be so quick to blame the last three companies. They are forced to buy their sweetners from where they are available (ADM). High tarrifs and import quotas on cane sugar were a result of ADM's dealings with members of Congress.

[Poohbah]

You mean the ba$tard transnational corporations who purchase sugar: ADM, Coca-Cola, Pepsi-Co, Kraft, etc, etc.

They're the @$$holes who circumvent our agriculture policies for profit and jeopardize our food supply.

Listen, Clymer, quit calling the businesses that are trying to make money Clymers. The real Clymers are the idiots who thought up the tarriff and subsidy policy that makes domestic sugar far too expensive to use.

This has nothing to do with "protecting our food supply." It has everything to do with protecting a few individual's MONEY supply.

Socialist Clymers like you should move to the worker's paradise--Cuba--and leave the rest of us alone.

[Wonder Warthog]

"No, it has already destroyed the domestic market for the sole benefit of a few, well-connected, politician-buying Florida sugar growers who would otherwise never make a profit."

They aren't all in Florida--there are a bunch of them in Louisiana as well.

[Willie Green]

Let the sugar in.

Yeah, right, stinky.

As if there's no concern about importing "white powdery substances" from some god-forsaken, terrorist-sponsoring, banana republic.