Modernization is an important part of any business. As a bakery that has been around for over 100 years, no one knows this better than we do. When my family opened Gold Medal Bakery in 1912, horse and buggy carriages made deliveries. Today intelligently mapped routes help trucks get bread, rolls, and English muffins out to stores quickly and reliably. Advancements in all areas are making make it easier to provide our customers with quality-baked goods, but there is one outdated government program that is still hamstringing our ability to grow. After 80 years on the books, it’s time to finally modernize the U.S. sugar program.
The U.S. sugar program is a Great-Depression-era federal subsidy long overdue for an update. Created in 1934, the program sets a minimum price for sugar, provides direct taxpayer subsidies to wealthy sugar farmers, and limits the amount of foreign sugar brought into the United States. If that sounds like a recipe to artificially increase sugar prices, you’re right. Today, due to government intervention in pricing and a lack of foreign competition, Americans pay twice as much for sugar as the rest of the world.
Sugar farms only account for one fifth of one percent of the American farms, so why is the government giving away billions of dollars to such a small group? By design, the program was intended to benefit the sugar industry without regard for the negative consequences it would impose on everyone else, including consumers and local businesses.
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