May 22, 2013 1:03PM 

# Sugar Is Already Rationed 

By [Sallie James](https://www.cato.org/people/sallie-james) 

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Seeking to draw attention to their…uh…“plight,” the U.S. sugar lobby took to Congress this week to protect their interests and defend against an [amendment to the Senate farm bill that would roll back the wasteful and corrupt U.S. sugar program](http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/senate/300685-senators-to-introduce-farm-bill-amendment-ending-a-sweet-deal-for-sugar-farmers). But in so doing, Big Sugar has used a tactic that would be more appropriately used by their pro-reform opponents. According to a [*Congressional Quarterly* article today \[$\]](http://www.cq.com/login?jumpto=%2Fdoc%2Fnews-4280788),

> …the American Sugar Alliance, a trade group for the sugar industry, is taking no chances. In a statement, the group said it **delivered replicas of 1940s, World War II-era sugar rationing coupons to Senate offices.**
> 
> 
> Rationing happened because the United States was dependent on foreign sugar at the time, the group said. Changes like those proposed by Toomey and Shaheen could once again lead to a flood of imported sugar and the loss of the domestic industry, said Ryan Weston, the Sugar Alliance’s chairman. \[emphasis mine\]

Actually, sugar is already rationed already in this country. The USDA tightly controls the domestic supply of sugar through “marketing allotments” and sugar imports through a system of tariff-rate quotas. These interventions cost American sugar consumers and sugar-using industries billions of dollars a year through higher-than-world-average sugar prices. As my colleague David Boaz blogged recently, [it really is a sweet deal for the sugar growers](https://www.cato.org/blog/big-sugar-tries-protect-its-sweet-deal-big-candy). Nothing *ration*al (sorry) about it.

##### Related Tags 

[Tax and Budget Policy](https://www.cato.org/tax-budget-policy), [Trade Policy](https://www.cato.org/trade-policy), [Herbert A. Stiefel Center for Trade Policy Studies](https://www.cato.org/herbert-stiefel-center-trade-policy-studies) 

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