WASHINGTON, D.C. (April 2, 2018) – In a new group of videos released today, California-based manufacturers Adams & Brooks, Inc. and Sconza Chocolates join the chorus of voices calling for reform of the U.S. sugar program. Both employees and leaders from these companies discuss how the sugar program, which forces U.S.-based manufacturers to pay double for the price of sugar, affects their livelihood and puts American companies at a competitive disadvantage.

“Anything you buy in the U.S. made with sugar, you are paying an unnecessarily high price for,” notes the Chief Operating Officer of San Bernardino-based Adams & Brooks, John Brooks, Jr. “One way to look at this policy is that it’s a tax on consumers. And why? So that a small well-connected segment of our population and our economy can have what is essentially a riskless business venture.”

Workers at the Oakdale-based Sconza Chocolates expressed the importance of their workplace to their families and communities. Eddie, a Sconza Chocolates operations employee, said, “I think it’s very important that for a small town, a small community like the one we have here, that they have a production plant like this where people can come in and have a career, grow inside that career, and have a future.”

The Sugar Policy Modernization Act (H.R. 4265 / SB. 2086), introduced by a bicameral, bipartisan group of federal lawmakers late last year, would reform the outdated and outrageous program. The proposal creates an adequate supply of sugar based on a reasonable competitive approach that reaches from the farm to the retail shelf – without risking an appropriate safety net for farmers. Congress can reform the U.S. sugar program this year as part of its consideration of the 2018 Farm Bill, which sets government agriculture policy.

Adams & Brooks and Sconza Chocolates aren’t alone in calling on Congress to reform the U.S. sugar program. To hear what others are saying, watch the Alliance for Fair Sugar Policy’s new video series.

The Alliance for Fair Sugar Policy (AFSP) is a broad-based coalition advocating to modernize the outdated and outrageous U.S. sugar program. Formed by a sizeable group of small, family-owned businesses and manufacturers, retailers, food and beverage companies, trade associations, environmental advocates, taxpayer watchdog organizations, responsible government advocates, think tanks and other organizations, the group’s goal is to help level the playing field for American manufacturers and their families when it comes to being able to create jobs. To learn more about the Alliance for Fair Sugar Policy and the need for sugar reform, please visit FairSugarPolicy.org.

If you are interested in using any of the video(s), please reach out to info@FairSugarPolicy.org.