Florida to sign massive sugar, Everglades deal(with video)

Florida to sign massive sugar, Everglades deal


U.S. Sugar Corp. would sell 300 square miles for wetlands restoration

updated 8:08 p.m. ET June 24, 2008

WELLINGTON, Fla. - In one of the biggest conservation deals in U.S. history, the nation's largest producer of cane sugar reached a tentative agreement Tuesday to get out of the business and sell its nearly 300 square miles in the Everglades to the state of Florida for $1.75 billion.

The deal with U.S. Sugar Corp. results from a convergence of interests: The state is trying to restore the Everglades and clean up pollution caused by Big Sugar and other growers, while the American sugar industry is being squeezed by low-price imports.

Republican Gov. Charlie Crist declared the agreement "as monumental as the creation of our nation's first national park, Yellowstone."

Under the deal, the state would buy U.S. Sugar's holdings in the Everglades south of Lake Okeechobee, including its cane fields, mill and railroad line. U.S. Sugar would be allowed to farm the 187,000 acres for six more years, after which it would go out of business.


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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25352380/

after all there WAS green stuff growing.
Its not like you tore down BUILDING or a PARKING LOT to make a place for trees!
This is an AMERICAN INDUSTRY that is going away, lost jobs, and for WHAT?
An inadequate sugar cane!? (hee hee sorry for the harriet quote)

In all seriousness in the long run this is a bad thing.We need to be IMPROVING us industry, WHATEVER that is, not DECREASING because of cheaper imports!