Big Sugar poisons people, poisons the Everglades, and poisons democracy

Why do they do it? Because they can ... and growing sugar cane in Florida is immensely profitable. They can do it, because your elected representatives -- today, the focus is on the Florida legislature, your state representatives and state senators -- see no consequence other than positive in doing whatever the teams of lobbyists are drilling through the session. Word is that Big Sugar has more than fifty, and perhaps as many as seventy, lobbyists pushing its bills through this session in Tallahassee. They can do it, because the sugar subsidy, memorialized in the federal Farm Bill, confers millions in profits to the polluters. They can do it, because all it takes is a fraction of those profits spread through big law firms to make sure the last cent is wrung from growing sugar cane before government policy intervenes to protect the public interest; for example, land to "save the Everglades". In fact, every time it seems like the sugar industry's privileges might weaken -- they harden. Their advisors get rich in the process. It has never been different, and it has never been worse than this session of the legislature and Gov. Rick Scott.