Sugar Support Program Combats Foreign Subsidy

Your recent article about the sugar support program (“U.S. Losing Its Appetite for Sugar Support Program,” Oct. 29) unfairly clouds the facts about the U.S. sugar programs and paints an inaccurate picture of the sweetener industry.

By law, the U.S. Sugar Program operates at no cost to taxpayers. For the last eight years the program has helped to maintain a viable U.S. sugar and corn sweetener industry in the face of foreign sugar being dumped on the market at prices far below the cost of production.

Nevertheless, numerous critics state inaccurately that the sugar program is a subsidy to farmers that is costly to consumers and the federal government. The allegations are perpetuated primarily by large industrial users who seek to buy subsidized foreign sugar with little or no concern for the consequences to American producers.

LUTHER MARKWART

Washington

The writer is chairman of the American Sugar Alliance.