BELLE GLADE, Fla. – The Pre-harvest Burning of Sugarcane and Air Quality study published by Tuskegee University on April 29 is more of the same Glades residents have been getting from US Sugar for as long as anyone can remember.
Just shy of one year before the study was published, the leaders of the Stop the Burn-Go Green Campaign were wary when approached for participation in an “Environmental Stewardship Discussion” by Olga Bolden-Tiller, Tuskegee University Dean and Research Director - College of Agriculture, Environment and Nutrition Sciences, but refused any clear idea of the study’s scope of work (SOW), especially considering Dr. Bolden-Tiller described the project as “a comprehensive environmental study to assess the impacts of sugarcane-burning practices throughout the region.”
Patrick Ferguson, Senior Organizing Representative, Sierra Club Florida: “Dr Bolden-Tiller was informed of our campaign's position that existing studies, done in Florida and elsewhere in the world, had already proven beyond a doubt that the only humane and sustainable option is to replace burning with burn-free green harvesting. We reminded her that residents in more affluent Eastern Palm Beach County did not have to wait for more research to justify the protections they received from pre-harvest sugar field burning when the wind-direction-based permitting rules were put in place to protect them in the 1990s, and that Glades residents who disproportionately bear the impacts of this toxic practice should not have to wait for more research when the green harvesting alternative is readily available and already being implemented by some local sugar growers.
Soon thereafter, the campaign team learned that Tuskegee University and FAMU were given $100,000K grants for carrying out this particular study project, and with the sugar industry’s long history of manipulating science and harassing independent academic researchers whose results criticize the industry, the leaders of the Stop the Burn-Go Green Campaign did not agree to participate in the study, but offered to engage in a conversation that was never pursued by the researchers.
Now that the study has been published, those worst suspicions have been confirmed.
Colin Walkes, former Mayor of Pahokee: “Nothing included in this recent study indicates that sugarcane burning is not a major public health threat or that the existing regulations are adequate to protect the public. Just because U.S. Sugar can pay for a study like this doesn’t mean we are going to ignore what we see, feel, breathe, and know from living here our whole lives.”
Steve Messam, Belle Glade resident and Senior Pastor First Church of God South Bay: “One would think a Pre-harvest Burning of Sugarcane and Air Quality study would have focused on the eight months of the year when pre-harvest sugarcane field burning takes place, but the study period was between April 12, 2024 and September 6, 2024, missing peak burning season of October - March. The majority of air quality readings took place when no sugar burning took place! When you focus on the wrong months, you are bound to come to wrong conclusions.”
Kina Phillips, South Bay resident: “While the study proclaimed to examine the pros and cons of sugarcane burning, what was published completely ignores all of the negative environmental, public health, and local economic impacts from pre-harvest burning. It reads exactly like the corporate propaganda US Sugar paid for, and does a grave disservice to residents of the Glades communities.”
Luz Torres, Pahokee resident: “Does US Sugar really think this study will make us believe sugar cane burning is good for our communities? During the peak burn season, we clean black snow off our properties and see how our children’s asthma is aggravated on heavy burn days.”
Anne Haskell, Belle Glade resident: “How could the study authors leave out any reference to the burn-free alternative of green harvesting, practiced not only by sugar growers around the world, but sugar growers right here in Florida?”
Patrick Ferguson, Senior Organizing Representative, Sierra Club Florida: “The study itself failed to disclose this financial relationship and even had the nerve to claim Randal Miller (of Miller Environmental Solutions), who took part in the study, was an independent participant, despite Mr. Miller being the sugar industry’s hired green-washer-in-chief for years. So we are satisfied with our campaign’s decision to not give credibility to this study. It is nothing more than a smokescreen.”
BACKGROUND
Legitimate “peer reviewed” studies from FSU and FIU have documented the health and air pollution impacts caused by sugarcane field burning.
- Seasonal size-segregated PM10 and PAH concentrations in a rural area of sugarcane agriculture versus a coastal urban area in Southeastern Florida, USA:
- Collected air quality monitoring data over a 12 month period covering the whole of the harvesting season
- Used chemical-based quantitative tracing methods to identify sources of of pollution (i.e. levogluscosan to identify sugarcane burning detailed in companion study here)
- Determined “During the sugarcane harvesting season at Belle Glade, the concentrations of PAHs associated with PM10 were up to 15 times higher than those measured during the summer growing season, indicating a substantially higher exposure of the rural population to these often mutagenic and carcinogenic compounds.”
- Impacts of Sugarcane Fires on Air Quality and Public Health in South Florida:
- Revealed that (1) between 1-6 people die each year from exposure to sugarcane burning pollution in Florida; and (2) the increment of mortality risk attributed to sugarcane burning for people residing closest to the burned fields is 10-times higher than that increment for those living farther away.
- More than 50 air quality and health impacts studies related to sugarcane field burning can be found on our website here.
- Independent research from around the world has outlined the improved sustainability associated with green harvesting.
- For years the media has documented testimonies of Glades residents, both affiliated and not affiliated with our campaign, who have been very clear about how pre-harvest sugar field burning hurts their health, quality of life, and pocketbook: NBC 6-Bittersweet Muck; Propublica-Black Snow series; Grist-Fire Drill; Rolling Stone-A Fire in the River: Big Sugar and ‘Black Snow’ in the Everglades; The Guardian-‘Black snow’: sugarcane burning makes our lives hell, Florida locals say; and Inside Climate News-In Florida, State Rules Concentrate Toxic Smoke in Underserved Communities
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