Raising 'Sugar-Cane': Investigative Report

Public News Service
October 3, 2011

BELLE GLADE, Fla. - A battle being waged in the ethanol industry pits sugar against corn, and it reaches from Florida to the Midwest to Latin America. Florida is at the center of this "energy war," and this investigative report by Les Coleman examines the history, business and political links between sugarcane-based ethanol and ethanol distilled from corn.

The long arm of Florida "big sugar" reaches far outside the state and across international frontiers. Flo-Sun, through subsidiaries such as Florida Crystals and Domino Foods, has milling and refining operations around the world. The rulers of Flo-Sun are brothers Pepe and Alfonso Fanjul, based in Palm Beach, whose father came to the U.S. on the heels of the Cuban Revolution more than a half-century ago.

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