Gov’t Sugar Subsidies Causing Massive Marine Animal Die Off as Florida Declares State of Emergency

 Last week, Florida Governor Rick Scott issued a state of emergency due to the extreme red tide algae bloom that is responsible for the widespread death of thousands of sea creatures. The order applies to the counties of Charlotte, Collier, Hillsborough, Lee, Manatee, Pinellas and Sarasota. “Biologists and scientists (will be made) available to assist in clean-up and animal rescue efforts,” Scott said in a news release. In the past month alone, workers have cleaned up more than 2.7  million pounds of dead fish and sea creatures that have washed up  onshore. Hundreds of sharks, dolphins, sea turtles and manatees have  also been killed in the red tide since the beginning of the summer. 

This type of algae bloom is naturally caused and not a threat when at  normal levels, however, a number of human-influenced factors contribute  to turning this into an environmental disaster. Experts believe that  the main culprit is fertilizer runoff caused by one of the state’s  largest industries, sugar farms. 

In 2004, Researchers from Stanford University’s School of Earth  Sciences found direct evidence linking fertilizer runoff to harmful  algae blooms According to a press release,  researchers made the discovery by analyzing satellite images of  Mexico’s Sea of Cortez, also known as the Gulf of California— narrow,  700-mile-long stretch of the Pacific Ocean that separates the Mexican  mainland from the Baja California Peninsula. “I looked at five years of satellite data. There were roughly  four irrigation events per year, and right after each one, you’d see a  bloom appear within a matter of days,” Mike Beman lead author of the study said.

 In the case of Florida, the red tide is being created by an industry  that would have no chance of survival in the state, or the country, if  it was not for government subsidies and protections propping them up. 

 Florida is the only place in the United States that can grow sugar  decently year-round, but the region is still outpaced by South and  Central America in terms of production, quality, and cost. 

Despite the fact that it would be far cheaper and more efficient to  import sugar, US politicians have had an ongoing obsession with keeping  this industry in the states and used a long list of subsidies and  tariffs to ensure that sugar is produced domestically. When looking at the relationship between politicians and the Florida  sugar industry, it becomes apparent why these protections seem so  important to the political establishment. 

According to a review  of state Division of Elections records carried out by the Tampa Bay  Times and Miami Herald, the sugar industry in the state of Florida  donated over $57.8 million to local and state political campaigns, that  does not even include federal donations. During the 2016 presidential election, Miami New Times  reported that The Fanjul brothers, owners of Florida Crystals, the  state’s largest and most controversial sugar producer, were donors to  both the Clinton and Trump campaigns. 

Each brother reportedly hosted  large fundraisers for a different candidate. Critics and environmental advocates have pointed out  that these donations result in government officials turning a blind eye  to the industry’s pollution, and failing to enforce the 1996 “polluter  pays” amendment that was voted into the Florida constitution, which  would hold these companies financially responsible for their  environmental impact. 

“You have a major industry that is saying, ‘We are so powerful we  don’t want to pay for our pollution treatment. … Taxpayers, you are  going to pay for it. Tough luck,'” said Albert Slap, board member for the Friends of the Everglades environmental group. 

This problem was set into motion over 100 years ago, when the US  government and the state of Florida poured millions of dollars into a project that foolishly drained the Everglades, for the purpose of making room for farms, most of which ended up being sugar farms. CJ of the Dangerous History Podcast laid out the history of the sugar industry in this region during his podcast series “Rise of the Cane Kingdom.” CJ described the situation by saying: 

“Over the past century, large-scale sugar cane  cultivation was developed in what became known as the Everglades  Agricultural Area, the region just south of Lake Okeechobee,  historically a part of the Everglades ecosystem which was drained in the  early- to mid-twentieth century. However, making sugarcane cultivation  in this area feasible & profitable has required massive amounts of  government subsidization, including: draining the land in the first  place & maintaining flood control infrastructure ever since; funding  soil experiments; assisting sugar companies in finding cheap,  controllable labor until the coming of mechanization in the 1990s; and  keeping out foreign sugar & keeping the US sugar price artificially  above the world price (usually 2-3x higher.) The sugar companies that  receive all of this welfare often get to “profit” immensely, and up  until a few decades ago were allowed to wreck havoc on South Florida’s  ecosystem with impunity.”