30 Years Ago / Excerpts from the September 1979 Issue

Bergland Announces 13 Cent Support Level for 1979 Crop — “Domestic sugar producers will receive federal price support of 13 cents per pound for 1979-crop raw cane sugar and 15.15 cents per pound for refined beet sugar under interim program regulations announced July 27 by Secretary of Agriculture Bob Bergland. [He] said these loan levels will provide average minimum support prices to farmers of $17 per net ton of average quality sugarcane and $22.46 per net ton of average quality sugarbeets.

“Bergland said the interim loan levels will remain in effect until enactment of new legislation establishing a higher market price objective and loan levels. Proposed legislation now being considered by Congress would increase the current 15-cent market price objective for raw sugar to 15.8 cents beginning in October. That legislation would also establish a loan rate for raw sugar at 89 percent of the price objective, or 14.06 cents per pound for raw cane sugar.

“Under the loan program, the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) offers sugar processors loans at the applicable rate per pound. Processors must, in turn, guarantee to pay farmers no less than the minimum price established in each sugarcane or sugarbeet processing region.”

Sugar Association Marks Thirty-Year Anniversary — “The battle-scarred and combat-ready organization charged with the highly emotional task of defending sugar will pause this week to celebrate its 30th anniversary.

“ ‘Looking back since our founding in 1949,’ J.W. Tatem, Jr., president of The Sugar Association, Inc., reflected, ‘we have seen dramatic change take place on the nutrition front. Even 10 years ago when I arrived at the Association . . . it would have been hard to predict that ‘nutrition’ would become the fascinating, catch-all word of the 70’s, or further, that consumers would consider it one of the topics of prime importance to their well-being. On the other hand . . . , who would have guessed that a host of exploitive individuals and organizations would be fast enough to spot that trend and move in as rapidly as they have to cash in on the confusion?’ . . . .

“Tatem said that the rise of consumerism, a social movement based on sound objectives but hampered by its demand for fast answers to difficult questions, has had a profound impact on the Association. ‘Metabolism, with all its complexities, is a natural area to be subjected to all kinds of pseudoscientific misinformation,’ Tatem said. ‘Critics of sugar have capitalized on the mysteries of how the body uses food to confuse and scare consumers.

“Tatem said that The Sugar Association was founded 30 years ago with the primary aim of promoting sugar through advertising and publicity, in effect marketing support. But times changed. As everyone got into the nutrition business, Tatem said, the myths about sugar began to develop and took all kinds of amazing twists. Suddenly, sugar was being blamed [with] causing everything from heart disease to behavioral disorders to headaches and sore throats, he said. . . .

“ ‘With such an abundance of misinformation,’ Tatem said, ‘The Sugar Association moved away from promotional activities to concentrate on public information and education and scientific research. Fortunately the scientific evidence is strongly in our favor.’ ”

U & I Shareholders Vote Sale of Plants — “Stockholders of U and I Incorporated on June 20 overwhelmingly approved disposals of the firm’s sugar processing operations. . . . Thus, U and I formally ended 90 years of involvement in the beet sugar business.

“The company had one sugar factory still finishing up its annual campaign operations — at Moses Lake, Washington — and will be selling its 1978-crop sugar for the remainder of the year and beyond. However, the stockholder vote gave approval for the board of directors to sell, salvage or otherwise dispose of sugar factories located at Moses Lake and Toppenish, in Washington; Idaho Falls, Idaho, and Garland, Utah; as well as their related distribution facilities. . . .

“President Rowland M. Cannon told stockholders at the [annual] meeting that U and I is in strong financial conditions despite losses from sugar operations in recent years while depressed [sugar] selling prices consistently have been lower than production costs. He said the continuing operations of the company, which basically include large scale farming and potato processing operations, have been strengthened and reorganized and are expected to provide improved profitability.”

Farm Technology Tightens Market — “New farm technology tightened the job market for migrant workers in the Red River Valley this summer. . . . Improved weed herbicides, new field thinners and drills, and a drastic cutback in sugarbeet acreage contributed to the sudden increase in unemployed migrants, commonly known as ‘freewheelers.’

“ ‘We estimate there were 10 to 15 percent less migrant workers needed this summer,’ said Richard Fitzsimons, executive director of the Red River Valley Sugarbeet Growers Association.”