Farm leaders from numerous commodities joined House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) and Ways and Means Committee Member Earl Pomeroy (D-N.D.) on a sugarbeet farm in the Red River Valley on July 7 to tackle one question: “Is the safety net in the current Farm Bill working?”

Russ Mauch, a producer from Barney, N.D. and president of the American Sugarbeet Growers Association, answered the question with an emphatic “yes.”

“We would urge Congress to continue this successful [sugar] policy in the next Farm Bill. As we say on the farm, ‘If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it,’” Mauch told Peterson and Pomeroy.

Mauch explained that current sugar policy has maintained a balanced market; has helped sustain fair prices; and has done it all without costing taxpayers a dime.

In addition, the sugar safety net underpins a local $3.1 billion sugar industry that supports 30,000 area jobs, he said.

Bill Hejl, the sugarbeet farmer who hosted the meeting, likewise believes the policy is working well but fears unneeded foreign sugar cascading onto the U.S. market could disrupt things in the future if that safety net is weakened.

Hejl, who recently served as president of the World Association of Beet and Cane Growers, points to potential sugar entering through Mexico and future trade deals as the biggest threats.

Peterson and Pomeroy have been longtime supporters of sugar policy and appear to share sugar producers’ belief that the existing policy is working well and should be left unharmed in order to ward off future threats.

At a recent Farm Bill hearing in California, Peterson said sugar policy is “working exactly as it is supposed to. I don’t foresee big changes in sugar.”