sugar industry

A “withhold release order” had been issued in 2022 for raw sugar and sugar products made by Central Romana over allegations of forced labor in the Dominican Republic. The company is partly owned by the Fanjul family — sugar barons based in West Palm Beach who have been influential in U.S. politics for decades.

Every year, farmers in South Florida set fire to more than 400,000 acres of sugarcane fields pre-harvest, creating a “black snow” of ash and soot that falls on the low-income communities nearby.

Sugarcane smoke “Black Snow” burns continue despite FSU study linking pollutants to handful of deaths.

As the U.S. bans sugar imports from prominent Dominican company Central Romana over forced labor allegations, the South Florida Roundup talked to an investigative reporter about the reality faced by workers in the industry.

The federal fight against the soot and ash from pre-harvest sugarcane burns has ended — for now.

Attorneys from both sides agreed that the case, which claimed the burns reduce property values and compromise air quality, should be dismissed.

Florida’s largest sugar companies say cane burns are safe and can’t be stopped without economic harm. But Brazil has successfully transitioned away from the controversial practice, and experts there say the U.S. can follow their lead.

The U.S. Department of Justice filed the lawsuit in federal court in Delaware, arguing that the combination of Clewiston-based U.S. Sugar and Imperial Sugar Co., would hurt customers in the Southeastern United States.

The governor is touting the monoclonal antibody treatment but is it safe and is it effective? Boca Raton recently enacted the strictest building inspection code in the state. Plus, a battle over the Everglades between sugar companies and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Key West leaders want to fulfill the wishes of voters and limit the types of cruise ships that can port at the city. Another person was arrested in the ongoing investigation of the assassination of Haiti’s president. And, a Palm Beach Post investigation looks into how sugar cane burning affects residents of the county.

Democratic state Rep. Omari Hardy, who represents north Palm Beach County along the coast, says the particle emissions added in the proposed expansion of the "Right to Farm Act" will negatively impact marginalized communities.

People who live in Belle Glade, and surrounding rural areas where sugarcane burning takes place, have been worried about health hazards for a long time — they say now, with the pandemic, they're even more concerned about exposure to the smoke.