As U.S. Sugar quietly expands north of Lake Okeechobee, environmentalists fear that the Everglades cleanup is losing out to farming.
ARTICLE COURTESY OF: FLORIDA BULLDOG
Cane fields in the backdrop at U.S. Sugar’s Area 7 site off State Road 621 east of Lake Istopkoga in Highlands County. The sugar grower has leased about 14,000 acres to grow sugar cane in northern Glades and Highlands County.
For months environmentalists have whispered that the Legislature’s push toward water storage north of Lake Okeechobee was driven by sugar interests.
Behind their fear is the belief that an underground water storage method that got $100 million in the two past legislative cycles and is in line for another $50 million this year would do more to help farming than it would to help the Everglades.
At the same time, U.S. Sugar is expanding its cane-growing dominion, with large-scale production north of Lake Okeechobee. While cane is the dominant crop in the rich muck soils around the lake, in recent years the crop has gained a foothold in the sandier soils to the north.
Permits granted by the South Florida Water Management District reveal that sugar farming is allowed on about 14,000 acres in northern Glades and southern Highlands counties, the Florida Bulldog has learned. The grower leasing the land is U.S. Sugar.
Property records show that in the past 10 years the giant farming interest controlled by a Michigan charity has doubled down on its crop, spending $465 million on land buys in the four counties ringing the lake: Palm Beach, Martin, Hendry and Glades.
The company’s continued growth inflames concerns of environmentalists that U.S. Sugar and other growers are taking advantage of the $23 billion Everglades restoration project to assure a steady flow of water for farming at the expense of Everglades cleanup.
While the company supports northern water storage, it won’t say if it is applying its well-regarded lobbying might to make it happen and contends that northern storage is good for Lake Okeechobee and has nothing to do with U.S. Sugar’s expansion.
U.S. Sugar gives big to Simpson’s PAC
However, state election records show that a day before Senate President Wilton Simpson grabbed headlines in December by saying he would block a $3.4 billion reservoir south of the lake in favor of northern storage, U.S. Sugar deposited $100,000 into his political committee, Jobs for Florida. Senate President Wilton Simpson
Three months later, in his opening remarks to the Senate, Simpson backed off his threat against southern storage. His northern storage bill, SB 1526, sailed through the Florida Senate and House in early April.
In 2017, U.S. Sugar argued against the southern reservoir, helping whittle it down from 60,000 acres of mostly privately owned land to 17,000 acres of mostly government-owned land.
The company pointed out that Everglades restoration efforts have forced private owners to sell 120,000 acres of rich cane land south of the lake in the fabled Everglades Agricultural Area to the government since the 1990s, reducing the footprint for sugar cane.
By 2008, it appeared all of U.S. Sugar’s privately owned land would follow suit.
Pressed by then-Gov. Charlie Crist, the company agreed to sell 187,000 acres to the state in a blockbuster $1.75 billion deal.
The Florida Legislature played a prominent role in blowing up the deal, which ultimately was squeezed down to 26,800 acres of citrus and cane land for $197 million.
And U.S. Sugar stayed very much in business.
U.S. Sugar expansion
By 2012, the company began amassing more land, closing on a $150 million deal to buy 14,400 acres in Palm Beach County. Two years later, it added 9,200 acres in Palm Beach County for $128 million. In 2018 it spent $30 million on 2,590 acres in Martin County and the next year, $130 million on 30,000 acres in Hendry County.
Glades and Highlands counties are highlighted in this map showing two large cane production fields operated by U.S. Sugar.
Those are just the largest land buys since 2012 that add up to an investment of $465 million. Since 2012, when the company owned 160,000 acres according to figures cited in The Produce News, its holdings have grown to about 215,000 acres, as published on U.S. Sugar’s website.
But it’s U.S. Sugar’s push north of the lake, combined with the Legislature’s push for northern storage, that have environmentalists on high alert.
While some cane had grown in Highlands County as far back as 2008, U.S. Sugar pulled permits in 2015 to grow 8,372 acres on land northwest of the Brighton Reservation owned by cattle and agriculture giant Lykes Bros.
In 2020, U.S. Sugar added 2,000 acres to a Lykes-owned cane field in Highlands County at the eastern edge of Lake Istokpoga, raising its sugar cultivation there to 5,769 acres, permit records show.
The fields are not far from U.S. Sugar’s railroad, the South Central Florida Express, giving the Clewiston-based grower an advantage over its largest competitor, West Palm Beach-based Florida Crystals, which does not appear to be leasing cane fields north of the lake.
Critical role of storage
Growing cane in Highlands County and adding farms in the fertile Lake Okeechobee counties, however, has nothing to do with storage north of the lake, U.S. Sugar’s Judy Sanchez said. To compete, the company must grow enough cane to feed its mill, said Sanchez, senior director of corporate communication and public affairs. Growers are thriving with existing water supplies.
