The Sugar Association is sharing sweet facts about sugarbeets and sugarcane with teachers and their students through the STEM program. In April 2022 the Sugar Association was accredited by STEM.org, a private education and research and credential program. The association for many years had been providing educational materials to the public and took the next step to become accredited to enhance their status as a trusted educational resource for teachers, said Maria Scott, Sugar Association scientific affairs consultant. The Sugar Association’s packet STEM resources page that it shares with teachers include a variety of lesson plans, videos and scientific experiments for teachers to use in their classrooms. The resources, which are available to students from kindergarten to 12th, are geared toward their grades in school. Scott encourages sugarbeet farmers, others in the sugarbeet industry and anyone interested in sharing information about sugar to share the National Real Sugar Day lesson plan with their local educators and invite them to celebrate with their students during the second week of October to celebrate the second annual National Real Sugar Day.
March 22, 2026
"The Feeding the Economy report affirms the vital role food and agriculture play in our nation’s economic resilience and food security. Commercial bakers have long been proud partners to American agriculture, sourcing 85 percent of their core ingredients from domestic farmers....Sponsoring organizations from the food and agriculture industries, who helped make the 2026 study possible, provided commentary on this year’s findings. The full list of sponsoring organizations includes: ...The Sugar Association"
March 10, 2026
"Courtney Gaine, president and CEO of the Sugar Association, a scientific body that supports the U.S. sugar industry, told the USDA Outlook Forum that the school meal standards taking effect next year might prohibit added sugars in kindergarten meals and could significantly restrict them in other grades. That change alone would cut sugar demand by over 130,000 short tons. The industry faces additional pressure from rising GLP-1 weight-loss drug usage, which jumped from 12% in May 2024 to 18% in November 2025, though Gaine cautioned it remains "premature to assess the impact."
March 3, 2026
"Gaine added, "There is no data to support all this." She said the focus on added sugar is often politically motivated, but food groups have not pushed back on the MAHA pressure. There is a lot of fear of retaliation, and for good reason they have not wanted to push back publicly," Gaine said. "I think it’s going to demand a coordinated, really coordinated, pushing back. Any effort up (until) now has been to go along to get along, and I don’t know if that’s going to work."
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