Will Adding Sugar Cane To US Coca-Cola Further Degrade The Florida Everglades?

Last month US President Donald Trump pushed for Coca-Cola to switch its US sweetening ingredient from corn syrup to cane sugar. It’s part of a long-term, successful lobbying effort — the sugar industry is renowned for its ample political donations and easy access to the White House. Is it a coincidence that Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy, Jr. has lashed out at the corn syrup industry, which he has called “poison?”

It’s unlikely. Corn syrup is out; sugar cane is in. Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, a cardiologist and director of the Food is Medicine Institute at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, said that “both high fructose corn syrup and cane sugar are about 50% fructose, 50% glucose, and have identical metabolic effects.”

Florida sugar growers spread millions of dollars in campaign donations each election cycle to state and federal candidates. For decades, the Florida sugar cane lobby has been an adversary of environmental groups, as its production feeds climate change and disrupts the Florida Everglades. Already, behind-the-scenes talk suggests that current US sugar cane production wouldn’t be enough to replace corn syrup in soda.

Has the Everglades — again — found itself at the mercy of political machinations?

The Everglades is a unique network of natural resources. It is the largest wilderness east of the Mississippi River and the largest subtropical wilderness in the US. The original Everglades watershed was a broad, freshwater marsh that extended from what is now the Kissimmee River basin, through Lake Okeechobee, to the southern tip of the Florida peninsula. Starting in the late 1800’s, large portions of the original Everglades were channelized and drained for development. Currently, there are more than 2,500 km of major canals and levees supporting industry, municipalities, and agriculture.

Florida is home to the nation’s largest sugar cane industry, which generates income for a small group of sugar producers through what the Cato Institute refers to as “a big assist from a federal sugar program that restricts imported sugar at the expense of American families, manufacturing, and the Florida environment.” US government support for the sugar industry guarantees 85% of the domestic market and a minimum price of 20 cents per pound for raw cane sugar and 25 cents for beet sugar.

Sugar production has reconfigured land and water use in Florida, contributing to the coastal and inland algae blooms. The nitrogen-fed outbursts have killed fish, manatees, sea turtles, and other wildlife. The agricultural drainage is nutrient-enriched compared to the original flows in which the Everglades evolved. This enrichment, specifically phosphorus, is cited as one of the causes of ecosystem changes in the Water Conservation Areas and the Everglades National Park.

US Sugar insists that, over the past two decades, it and other farmers in the Everglades Agricultural Area have reduced the amount of phosphorus leaving their farms by an average of 57% a year. “That far exceeds the 25% annual restoration requirements,” they add, nothing that today, more than 95% of the Everglades meets water quality standards set by the federal government and the state of Florida.

Ah, there’s the rub. Phosphorus in agricultural and stormwater runoff has degraded water quality in the Everglades since the 1960’s. Stormwater Treatment Areas have permits required under the Clean Water Act now limit how much phosphorus can be discharged. A $2 billion effort to treat large volumes of water down to the very low phosphorus level (10 parts per billion) is underway to restore the Everglades.

Reform would benefit tens of millions of US families who are forced to pay higher grocery bills because of inflated prices for domestic sugar as well as seeing their federal funding committed to cleanups for which the sugar industry should be held accountable.

Non-Profits and Native Tribes Join in the Fight to Save the Everglades

The Friends of the Everglades outlines how almost half a million acres of sugarcane are burned for harvest every year in the fields around the Everglades. The non-profit — founded by environmental activist Marjory Stoneman Douglas — argues that current burn protections by the state of Florida fall short of safeguarding residents living in and around the Everglades Agricultural Area, leaving communities vulnerable to air pollution, health risks, and economic stress.

The Seminole Tribe is tackling additional problems in the Everglades with the Seminole Everglades Restoration Initiative. It is a multi-year project that will have a significant impact on the quality and quantity of water flowing off of the Big Cypress Reservation and into the Florida Everglades. It is designed to mitigate the impacts of development on the environment; more specifically, to improve water quality, to increase water storage capacity, and to enhance hydroperiods. This $65 million program has the following targeted restoration benefits:

• Address the harmful impacts of development on the South Florida ecosystem;
• Improves water quality to meet water quality standards;
• Enhance the hydroperiod in the Big Cypress National Preserve;
• Improve the water quality in the Everglades Protection Area;
• Remove phosphorus and other pollutants from water leaving the Reservation and flowing to the Big Cypress National Preserve into Mullet Slough to the Everglades Protection Area;
• Rewater the Big Cypress National Preserve;
• Convey and store irrigation water; and,
• Provide improved flood control.

As the Trump administration continues to dismantle federal funding from conservation projects, the Miccosukee Tribe is also embarking on a project to protect the Everglades. Taking on what it sees as a moral obligation to buy and protect environmentally significant lands, the Tribe has joined in a groundbreaking partnership agreement with the Florida Wildlife Corridor Foundation. As chronicled by The Guardian, the Corridor is an ambitious project to connect 18 million acres (7.3m hectares) of state and privately owned wilderness into a contiguous, safe habitat for scores of imperiled and roaming species, including black bears, Key deer, and Florida panthers. The Florida wildlife corridor was established in 2021 by lawmakers who approved an initial $400m for acquisition against a multi-year $2bn budget for land conservation. About 10 million acres have been preserved, with another 8 million considered “opportunity areas” in need of protection.

A study by the Native American Fish and Wildlife Society (NAFWS) found that 60% of federally recognized tribes have lost grants or other federal funds totalling more than $56 million since Donald Trump took office in January. Yet there’s money for sugar, you sweet thang.

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