We Get Bigger

"Updated: June 16th, 2006 12:05 PM PDTAmerican Sugar Refining Acquires Hansen Specialty Sweeteners


American Sugar Refining, Inc. has purchased the specialty sweetener division of Chr. Hansen, Inc. for an undisclosed amount. The transaction includes the specialty sweetener product line of molasses, malt, rice syrup, oat extract, honey, and invert and fondant sugar, as well as production facilities in Louisiana and Illinois.
Shortly after PAI Partners acquired Chr. Hansen last year, it was decided to divest the sweetener activities of the company.
'As we reviewed our business strategies with a determined focus on growth, we realized that sweeteners are not within our core product areas,' said David R. Carpenter, president and CEO of Chr. Hansen in North America, in a prepared statement.
'Thus, we decided to divest Sweeteners, and further strengthen our expertise in developing and supplying cultures, dairy enzymes, natural colors, and flavors.'
American Sugar Refining, Inc., based in Yonkers, N.Y., is the largest cane sugar refiner in the U.S. Its products are marketed by Domino Foods, Inc., which offers a full line of sugar products under the Domino®, C&H® and Florida Crystals® brands.
Brian O'Malley, Domino's president and chief executive officer, said 'the acquisition adds to Domino's offering of specialty sweetener products, which includes natural and organic sugars and rice syrups, molasses, and fondant, icing and brown sugars. We intend to continue to grow the specialty ingredient business through the development of new and unique products that meet our customers' needs for specialty sweeteners.'
The sweeteners business wa"

A Lesson for US Voters!

"At least by U.S. standards, Calderon is a centrist, very much in the middle of the road," said Arturo Sarukhan, his chief foreign-policy adviser. "He would be like a liberal Republican or a moderate Democrat. He knows he will have to negotiate with the other political forces."

With Calderon as President of Mexico, in November maybe we will vote in the Center also.

Snowshoe Thompson

This has little to do with sugar but is about one of the people that brought skiing to the US.

A famous Norwegian immigrant skier was born in Telemark, Norway. His name, at birth, was Jon Torsteinson Rue. He was only ten years old when he immigrated to the United States with his family in 1837. In 1851 the family came to California to join the gold rush, without apparent success. Jon had changed his name to the more easily pronounceable John Thompson, and he was to become a legend as a one-man postal service carrying heavy mail sacks over the Sierra Nevada on skis in the winter.
Nobody in California and Nevada had seen skis before, so they called John's boards snowshoes, and he became known to everyone in the Sierra Nevada as Snowshoe Thompson. His service in speeding up mail deliveries was invaluable, since letters from one coast to the other frequently took a whole year. Skiing the 90-mile route through the wild mountains from Placerville, California, to Genoa and Virginia City, Nevada, Snowshoe Thompson was completely on his own. He maintained his route for twenty years, rarely if ever getting paid. He would accept food and other goods from some of the people who asked him to carry special packages for them and would even get shopping lists from people in the mountain communities who needed things from Sacramento stores. On several occasions, he saved the lives of snowbound and wounded miners because of his speed and skill on skis. During the summer he tried to supplement the income from his little farm outside Placerville by driving a stagecoach. On the whole, there were many people who depended on Snowshoe Thompson. He died in 1876. A memorial stone on his grave in Genoa, Nevada, has a pair of crossed skis chiseled into the granite.

A new water boon

"In Crockett, the East Bay Municipal Utility District recently won a $3 million grant to help build a water desalinator in the C&H Sugar plant. The facility, which will convert unused steam to generate the power needed to treat the water, will replace 1.5 million gallons of potable water the sugar factory uses each day for cooling and other industrial purposes."

Record meteorite hit Norway

"The record was the Alta meteorite that landed in 1904. That one was 90 kilos (198 lbs) but we think the meteorite that landed Wednesday was considerably larger,' Røed Ødegaard said, and urged members of the public who saw the object or may have found remnants to contact the Institute of Astrophysics."

And if you read this issue (click title) you find that unemployment is at a new low.

Cane Growers Full Employment Act

Planned ethanol plant in Tampa gets boost from Gov. Bush - The Business Journal of Milwaukee:: "Tampa Bay Business Journal - 2:39 PM EDT Monday
Tampa's Port Sutton area is expected to be the home of Florida's newest ethanol production facility, and Gov. Jeb Bush used the site to sign into law a four-year, $100 million plan that could diversify the state's fuel supply while promoting energy conservation and efficiency.
Bush signed Senate Bill 888, otherwise known as the Florida Renewable Energy Technologies and Energy Efficiency Act, that is expected to reduce regulatory barriers to expedite electric generation capacity and providing rebates, grants and tax incentives to drive the development of alternative fuel technologies, officials said. "

With 51 cents a gallon federal subsidy for ethanol, Florida growers may make out like bandits!

OpinionJournal - HOT TOPIC

"U.S. taxpayers today pay twice for ethanol: once in crop subsidies to corn farmers and again in a 51-cent subsidy for every gallon of ethanol. Without such a subsidy, ethanol simply wouldn't be cost competitive with gasoline. Then last year, Congress went further and passed a new ethanol mandate, requiring drivers to use at least 7.5 billion gallons annually by 2012."

[This opinion piece is worth reading in it's entirety.]

Wait and See

ETHANOL: Officials: You cane not beet sugar: "The U.S. Department of Agriculture is expected to issue a long-awaited study about July 1 on the viability of converting sugar into ethanol. Keith Collins, the USDA's chief economist, said that the soaring demand for ethanol and Brazil's successful track record make it worth discussing sugar-based ethanol."

Unintended Consequences

Maybe this will spell the end of sugar subsidies!

greatfallstribune.com - www.greatfallstribune.com: "Ethanol in the United States is subsidized through a 51-cent-a-gallon tax credit. Corn-based ethanol, largely produced from Midwest crops, dominates the U.S. market."

Uninteded Consequences !

Bloomberg.com: Latin America The focus on ethanol as a gasoline substitute promises significant changes in the sugar market. Who knows what the effect will be on Crockett.

Man battled moose with slipper - and won

Man battled moose with slipper - and won On the other hand it may be that the slipper carried the odor of feet belonging to a native fed for generations on lutefisk.

Preservation Online: Today's News Archives: A Mighty Windmill Returns to Salinas, Calif., Estate

Preservation Online: Today's News Archives: A Mighty Windmill Returns to Salinas, Calif., Estate: "Boasting 1,300 blades, a 114-year-old wind engine will spin once again at a historic farm in Salinas, Calif. A team of workers completed reinstallation of the mammoth structure at the Harden Estate, part of a 19th-century ranch, on June 7. "

C & H to Launch Organic Brand Sugar

Recipes by Florida Crystals Corporation Although C & H parent company has been producing Organic Cane for some time, the C & H Organic will soon be marketed in the west. Come to the Crockett Museum and Historical Society for more information.

Sugar House / American Sugar Refining Company

Sugar House / American Sugar Refining Company

This article provides background and history to the sugar trust in later years.

Pride Enterprises in dispute over land for hospital - Tampa Bay Business Journal:

Pride Enterprises in dispute over land for hospital - Tampa Bay Business Journal:

I'd be interested in what Bel Glade residents have to say.

H no longer means Hawaiian

Little by little the world changes. Land use change is probably a good idea.

Energy is the future for Maui sugar plantation - Pacific Business News (Honolulu):: "Changes in the sugar industry have left the 125-year-old company little choice but to seek more profitable uses for its land holdings. Sugar prices are unstable, operating costs have risen and market share for Maui Brand sugar has declined.
As a result, HC&S is following the lead of Mainland corn, soy and other commodity growers that have focused on ethanol, biodiesel and the like for the past couple of decades to revive their balance sheets. "

Gore Movie making Headway

I haven't seen this movie yet but I may break my rule of not spending any of my dollars at movie theatres.

Comcast Message Center:

"An Inconvenient Truth' is breaking records at the box office. Even though it was only open in 77 theaters, its per-theater average gross was higher than any other movie last weekend!1

For the last two months, Al Gore has been criss-crossing the country to sound the alarm about global warming and make sure people see the film. He's gotten amazing coverage for this important issue. Now,
this Sunday, he wants to talk to all of you—MoveOn members"

Ethanol versus Refined Sugar

Who knows where this will take us. Maybe leave refined sugar to the world market or the beet growers and run automobiles with the cane. Cane to ethanol is certainly more efficient than corn to ethanol.
KRT Wire 05/30/2006 Some sugar cane farmers eye ethanol as potential cash crop: "Florida, which ranks third in the country in fuel consumption, is slowly warming to the idea of ethanol - just not from sugar. Construction on the first of two ethanol fuel plants is expected to begin this summer near Tampa. The $155 million project will be privately financed and have a combined capacity to produce 100 million gallons of ethanol a year - primarily from corn brought from the Midwest, Alvarez said. The University of Florida also is seeking $20 million from the state legislature to build an on-campus ethanol research plant."

Murphy's Ranch is the Place to Start

After several years the new park is ready to open. Plan on visiting during the town birthday celebrations in September.

One Down One to Go

Energy is the future for Maui sugar plantation - Pacific Business News (Honolulu):

In many ways this is distressing news for Crockett.