Big Sugar Blinks

With our campaign bearing down on them—and in the aftermath of Dr. Michée Lachaud's study establishing a statistically significant link between sugarcane burning and increased asthma incidence rates among low-income, predominantly Black Florida communities—U.S. Sugar has engaged Tuskegee University and Florida A&M University to study the impacts of sugarcane burning.

We know what you're thinking: this is U.S. Sugar's cynical attempt to tell us—this time, under the banner of two highly credible institutions—that the air is clean. Just like they did with their infamous highway billboard. 

That was our reaction. But at this stage, is Big Sugar so shameless that they would ignore not just Dr. Lachaud's work, but also the 2022 work by Florida State University researchers who found that emissions from sugarcane fires kills one to six Floridians each year?

They might be. 

But we will tell you this: we are confident Tuskegee and FAMU will not get rolled.

As Garlen Dale Wesson, FAMU's interim dean for the College of Agriculture and Food Sciences, told the Tallahassee Democrat: “We’re mostly interested in monitoring the effects on the surrounding communities of concern. A lot of our African American or minority communities don’t get these kinds of studies done, so we’re placing an emphasis on supporting minority communities.”

At the end of the day, we are glad Big Sugar is feeling the pressure—thanks to you and your support.