Florida Sells Out Everglades for U.S. Sugar's Gain

by Katherine Gustafson · 2010-03-13 11:00:00 UTC
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Apparently corporations are not only more important than historical preservation and local communities, but also take precedence over our country's natural treasures.

The New York Times reports that the Florida government plans to strike a deal with a major landowner in the Everglades, the United States Sugar Corporation, which favors the company and will set back conservation progress in the "river of grass" for years.

The state originally entered the deal to negotiate preservation for the famous wetlands, not to offer United States Sugar a corporate bailout. But the downsized arrangement involves the government purchase of a measly 72,800 acres of U.S. Sugar’s land for $536 million, leaving 107,000 acres on which the company can stay in business. The sugar company, says the Times, "dictated many of the terms of the deal as state officials repeatedly made decisions against the immediate needs of the Everglades."

"United States Sugar dictated many of the terms of the deal as state officials repeatedly made decisions against the immediate needs of the Everglades," writes the Times.

Gov. Charlie Crist stated that the deal was the best bet for conservation of the area, patently ignoring the fact that conservationists have had to suspend or cancel more than a dozen government-funded restoration projects due to of the cost of the deal with U.S. Sugar.

Crist lambasted critics, saying they were just sitting on their hands while deriding his noble efforts at progress. "What are they doing in a productive way to move forward and preserve this national treasure that exists nowhere else on the face of the earth?" he said to the Times. "Nothing but complain. I rest my case."

No, I'm afraid that case does not rest, and neither will those critics until our public officials finally start putting the people and places of this country ahead of its corporations.

In the words of Tom Laskawy at Grist, the only lesson to be drawn from this is that "U.S. corporations continue to extract billions from taxpayers as easily as taking candy from a baby."

Photo: chaunceydavis818 on Flickr

Katherine Gustafson is a freelance writer and editor with a background in international nonprofit organizations.
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