www.ambiente.us JULY / JULIO 2008
Booting US Sugar from the Everglades
by Michael Grunwald / Wellington, Fla.
Florida governor Charlie Crist could be turning his constituents into sugar barons. And he's
about to set the stage for the Everglades to come back from the dead.
At a news conference Tuesday morning
near the imperiled "River of Grass,"
Governor Crist announced a $1.75 billion
deal to buy the U.S. Sugar Corp., including
187,000 acres (75,677 hectares) of farmland
that once sat in the northern Everglades.
If the deal goes through, it will
extinguish a powerful 77-year-old
company with 1,700 employees and
deep roots in South Florida's
coal-black organic soil. It will also
resurrect and reconfigure a moribund eight-year-old Everglades re-plumbing effort that is
supposed to be the most ambitious ecosystem restoration project in the history of the planet.
"It's mind-blowing," said Kirk Fordham, executive director of the Everglades Foundation, before the
announcement was made. "Who would have thought we'd see this in our lifetimes?"
The purchase would give the state control of nearly half the 400,000 acres (161,876 hectares) of sugar fields
in the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) below Lake Okeechobee, although sources said U.S. Sugar would
lease back its land for six years. Environmentalists hope that eventually, the area will become storage
reservoirs, treatment marshes and perhaps even a flow-way reconnecting the lake to the Glades. This could
help re-create the original north-south movement of the River of Grass and eliminate damaging pulses of
excess water into coastal estuaries. That would be good news for panthers and gators, dolphins and
herons, ghost orchids and royal palms.
Crist has been mentioned as a possible running mate for Senator John McCain, and they both took a lot of
flak in Florida last week when they dropped their opposition to offshore drilling. But Crist has been true to his
pledge to be "the Everglades governor," replacing many of Jeb Bush's industry-friendly aides with eco-friendly
appointees, blocking the legislature's efforts to eliminate funding for restoration and stopping the sugar
industry from pumping polluted runoff into the lake. In a recent interview with TIME, Crist hinted that he was
planning some "breathtaking changes" for the Everglades. "Putting your heart and soul into it really makes a
difference," he said.
The end of U.S. Sugar would clearly have ramifications. Florida Crystals, the agribusiness controlled by the
well-wired Fanjul family, would be all that's left of Big Sugar. Founded by General Motors executive Charles
Stuart Mott in the Everglades back in 1931, U.S. Sugar currently produces 9% of America's sugar — thanks to
a massive federal water-control project that its executives helped design and a lucrative federal sugar
program that artificially boosts its prices. The company has always been popular in its headquarters of
Clewiston ("The World's Sweetest Town"), but labor activists have accused it of mistreating its workers and
environmental activists constantly blame the firm for ravaging the Everglades.
Big Sugar did block the flow, and suck the water out of the Everglades, and sent nutrients into the
Everglades, converting its saw grass marshes into cattail clumps and inspiring one of the most contentious
pollution lawsuits in U.S. history. But ever since the litigation was settled in the mid-1990s, Big Sugar has
done an impressive job of cleaning up its act, and development has become a much greater threat to the
health of the Everglades. Still, U.S. Sugar executives have often warned that they might build condos
someday, and environmentalists have dreamed of locking up their land.
Now their dreams appear to be coming true. They're about to become part-owners of Big Sugar.
"This could be a
game changer,"
said Everglades
activist Alan Farago
before the press
conference was
held. "The biggest
obstacle has always
been the EAA. Now
we can try to
salvage restoration."
There are still plenty
of details to be
worked out, like how
the state will raise
cash during a fiscal
crisis, and the sugar
industry has a
troublesome history
in Florida. The Crist
administration will
have to negotiate
land swaps with Florida Crystals, and it will have to figure out what to do with a mill, a refinery and a railroad
that are now property of the state. And there's no doubt that the new opportunities for water storage in the
agricultural area will require a revamping of the original restoration plan from 2000, which envisioned
hundreds of underground storage wells. But that's a good thing; the storage wells would have been
ridiculously expensive, and the original plan was dead in the water.
The Everglades has been under siege for more than a century, in part because it doesn't look the way people
expect environmental treasures to look. "To put it crudely," wrote Everglades National Park's first
superintendent, Daniel Beard, "there is nothing in the Everglades that would make Mr. Johnnie Q. Public
suck in his breath." If Crist can reverse the flow of history and help the Everglades flow again, that really
would be a breathtaking change.
Copyright © AMBIENTE MAGAZINE. Do not reproduce without citing this source.
Booting US Sugar from the Everglades
by Michael Grunwald / Wellington, Fla.
Florida governor Charlie Crist could be turning his constituents into sugar barons. And he's
about to set the stage for the Everglades to come back from the dead.
At a news conference Tuesday morning
near the imperiled "River of Grass,"
Governor Crist announced a $1.75 billion
deal to buy the U.S. Sugar Corp., including
187,000 acres (75,677 hectares) of farmland
that once sat in the northern Everglades.
If the deal goes through, it will
extinguish a powerful 77-year-old
company with 1,700 employees and
deep roots in South Florida's
coal-black organic soil. It will also
resurrect and reconfigure a moribund eight-year-old Everglades re-plumbing effort that is
supposed to be the most ambitious ecosystem restoration project in the history of the planet.
"It's mind-blowing," said Kirk Fordham, executive director of the Everglades Foundation, before the
announcement was made. "Who would have thought we'd see this in our lifetimes?"
The purchase would give the state control of nearly half the 400,000 acres (161,876 hectares) of sugar fields
in the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) below Lake Okeechobee, although sources said U.S. Sugar would
lease back its land for six years. Environmentalists hope that eventually, the area will become storage
reservoirs, treatment marshes and perhaps even a flow-way reconnecting the lake to the Glades. This could
help re-create the original north-south movement of the River of Grass and eliminate damaging pulses of
excess water into coastal estuaries. That would be good news for panthers and gators, dolphins and
herons, ghost orchids and royal palms.
Crist has been mentioned as a possible running mate for Senator John McCain, and they both took a lot of
flak in Florida last week when they dropped their opposition to offshore drilling. But Crist has been true to his
pledge to be "the Everglades governor," replacing many of Jeb Bush's industry-friendly aides with eco-friendly
appointees, blocking the legislature's efforts to eliminate funding for restoration and stopping the sugar
industry from pumping polluted runoff into the lake. In a recent interview with TIME, Crist hinted that he was
planning some "breathtaking changes" for the Everglades. "Putting your heart and soul into it really makes a
difference," he said.
The end of U.S. Sugar would clearly have ramifications. Florida Crystals, the agribusiness controlled by the
well-wired Fanjul family, would be all that's left of Big Sugar. Founded by General Motors executive Charles
Stuart Mott in the Everglades back in 1931, U.S. Sugar currently produces 9% of America's sugar — thanks to
a massive federal water-control project that its executives helped design and a lucrative federal sugar
program that artificially boosts its prices. The company has always been popular in its headquarters of
Clewiston ("The World's Sweetest Town"), but labor activists have accused it of mistreating its workers and
environmental activists constantly blame the firm for ravaging the Everglades.
Big Sugar did block the flow, and suck the water out of the Everglades, and sent nutrients into the
Everglades, converting its saw grass marshes into cattail clumps and inspiring one of the most contentious
pollution lawsuits in U.S. history. But ever since the litigation was settled in the mid-1990s, Big Sugar has
done an impressive job of cleaning up its act, and development has become a much greater threat to the
health of the Everglades. Still, U.S. Sugar executives have often warned that they might build condos
someday, and environmentalists have dreamed of locking up their land.
Now their dreams appear to be coming true. They're about to become part-owners of Big Sugar.
"This could be a
game changer,"
said Everglades
activist Alan Farago
before the press
conference was
held. "The biggest
obstacle has always
been the EAA. Now
we can try to
salvage restoration."
There are still plenty
of details to be
worked out, like how
the state will raise
cash during a fiscal
crisis, and the sugar
industry has a
troublesome history
in Florida. The Crist
administration will
have to negotiate
land swaps with Florida Crystals, and it will have to figure out what to do with a mill, a refinery and a railroad
that are now property of the state. And there's no doubt that the new opportunities for water storage in the
agricultural area will require a revamping of the original restoration plan from 2000, which envisioned
hundreds of underground storage wells. But that's a good thing; the storage wells would have been
ridiculously expensive, and the original plan was dead in the water.
The Everglades has been under siege for more than a century, in part because it doesn't look the way people
expect environmental treasures to look. "To put it crudely," wrote Everglades National Park's first
superintendent, Daniel Beard, "there is nothing in the Everglades that would make Mr. Johnnie Q. Public
suck in his breath." If Crist can reverse the flow of history and help the Everglades flow again, that really
would be a breathtaking change.
Copyright © AMBIENTE MAGAZINE. Do not reproduce without citing this source.
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