I love this time of year. The air is getting cooler, with the sweet hint of cane molasses in the breeze, and everyone’s getting ready for Halloween.

While recently shopping for trick-or-treat candy, the hollow promises of candy company lobbyists came to mind. For years, they’ve told Congress that if sugar prices were even more affordable, then the savings would be passed along to grocery shoppers in the form of cheaper candy.

Why then do bags of Halloween candy get more expensive every year?

The prices I receive for my sugarcane have dropped like a rock over the past couple of years, and food manufactures are actually paying less for sugar than they did in 1980.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, food manufacturers paid just 25.4 cents for a pound of sugar last month. That’s compared to 31 cents the same time last year and a whopping 44 cents way back in September of 1980.

Maybe lobbyists for the candy companies have been stretching the truth a little bit on Capitol Hill. Maybe their motive is to urge government officials to apply downward pressure on sugar prices so food manufacturers’ profits can continue to climb.

Maybe Dave DeCecco, a spokesman for Pepsi, got it right when he told the New York Times, “The cost of sweetener in the product is extremely minimal to the point of not even mattering.”

To test my theory, I did some simple calculations using the nutrition labels on bags of candy from a local store. In a $3.59 bag of assorted Halloween chocolates, there is only 9.8 cents worth of sugar.

Assuming candy company lobbyists succeeded in crippling U.S. sugar policy in the upcoming Farm Bill, and assuming they passed every cent of subsequent savings along to consumers, this price tag would barely budge.

A dramatic 10 percent drop in sugar prices would still leave shoppers with a $3.58 bag of Halloween chocolate. Heck, if sugar producers gave them the sugar for free, that bag would still cost $3.49.

With the Senate expected to vote on a Farm Bill this Halloween season, legislators should look past the spin of candy company lobbyists and should recognize the trick they are playing.

Large food manufacturers want to weaken America’s proven sugar program to boost their already bloated profits, not to make Halloween candy shopping a treat for everyday Americans.

Like the House of Representatives, the Senate should pass a Farm Bill with a strong U.S. sugar program.
About the Author: Gene Adolph is a fourth-generation farmer from Napoleonville, Louisiana. His wife, Julie, and three children also pitch in on the Adolph’s 650-acre sugarcane farm.