Trade in Real Life: How U.S. Sugar Farmers Snack on Americans ’ Treats

Gabriella Beaumont-SmithThe COVID-19 pandemic changed the world, shifting even peoples ’ eating habits.Numeroussurveys reveal that Americans are snacking more, providing new opportunities for food and beverage companies. In fact, according toAxios, American food manufacturers are pushing out all sorts of new flavor combinations, sizes, packaging, and shapes of snacks. In particular, fun ‐​size snacks and “mashups” of flavors are trending, including, bite‐​sized Twinkies and Ding Dongs, Cocoa Puffs popcorn, and Dr Pepper cotton candy. And these aren’t just aimed at kids, executives at numerous food companies say all consumers value these new varieties.While sweet treats are integral to many celebrations —Halloween,Valentine ’s Day,Easter,Christmas, birthdays, etc. —they now serve as a simple joy in life. According to the National Confectioners Association, consumerssee chocolate and candy as “a fun part of life.” And since inflation has persisted, reducing how far peoples’ paychecks go, consumers are looking for affordable treats, and candy and chocolate provide the perfect fix.Yet, the U.S. sugar program purposefully makes sugar more expensive. Basically, the U.S. governmentrestricts the supply of sugar to keep the price of U.S. sugar high. The government does this in a  few ways but primarily by buying U.S. sugar to keep it off the consumer market and by imposing strict tariff‐​rate quotas where very low quantities can be imported duty‐​...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs