Farm Safety Net Not in Jeopardy

North Dakota Senator Kent Conrad told those attending the 26th International Sweetener Symposium in Park City, Utah, that the farm safety net was not a problem in setting federal spending. The Chairman of the Budget Committee said the 2008 Farm Bill already included steep cuts for agriculture. Plus - he said agriculture is not the big problem.

Instead - he suggests the problem areas include Social Security, healthcare and inadequate revenue collection. Conrad said agriculture would be in good shape during future negotiations. Conrad also said targeting sweetened soft drinks to help raise funds to pay for healthcare reform is now unlikely. The vast majority of soft drinks are sweetened with high fructose corn syrup, not sugar. Sugar producers oppose the proposed soda tax because, as the American Sugar Alliance put it, - such a tax would penalize our colleagues in the corn farming business and wrongly demonizes sweetened products.