When worlds collide

Reading this article about the big drought hitting Florida (for those of you in the know, the water crisis will hit the planet long before Global Warming becomes a big thing) and one part stood out,

The cane sugar industry is also bracing for a big hit. U.S. Sugar Corp. spokeswoman Judy Sanchez said crops were worse than the 2001 drought. The company is the nation's leading producer of cane sugar. The drought is compounding damage from some earlier cold weather."We had probably three freeze spells in winter that knocked some of the young cane back to the ground," Sanchez said. "It did not have adequate water, so some of the cane that was frost-damaged has not recovered its growth."

Sugar Cane is the sweet nectar that can bring environmentalists and free marketeers together (if only quit knee jerking and look at the issue).

Sugar cane takes huge amounts of water to grow, huge amounts of water to process, and it also creates huge amounts of pollution that damages what water is not used in growth or production. Easy to see why the Greenies don't like it.

Also, the sugar subsidy insures that US consumers pay more for sugar, a lot more. US sugar prices are about twice the global market rate, and that hits every product that has sugar, or in our house, everything worth eating. It's a $10 billion dollar a year industry that has major Governmental protection and pays for it. According to the above link, "During the 2006 election cycle, they contributed $2.7 million to congressional candidates; 60% of that went to the newly empowered Democrats." A protected $10 billion industry who's protection costs every American real money. Easy to see why free marketers don't like it.

Banning together, Greenies, Good Government types, Libertarians and Freemarketers, could all get a win. But that would mean someone may not get credit, some of the benefits may not be direct, and people with differing views on other subjects would have to work together. All Big Sugar has to do is play off the natural distrust and inaction to win. Smart money's with Big Sugar, but they would be soooo easy to knock off.