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Everglades Trust

The tail wagging

The Tail Wags the Dog

21 million Floridians, hundreds of millions of visitors, and future generations are being dictated to, stolen from, and lied to by the “tail” – corporate agricultural interests and a handful of sugar barons (barons who contribute roughly 0.042% toward Florida’s economy and maybe 2,500 permanent jobs. 

And of those jobs, it is likely a quarter of them are lobbyists, consultants, and lawyers). The “dog” is our health, prosperity, economy and jobs, recreation, cultural inheritances and drinking water. The 1997 movie Wag the Dog starring Dustin Hoffman and Robert De Niro, can be rented on Amazon. You might enjoy watching it again, or for the first time.

Sugar Welfare 101

Two multi-billion-dollar international corporations subsidized by the American and Florida taxpayer, roughly $50 billion over the past 20 years in the sugar subsidy program, heave their toxic filth on their neighbors while starving the Everglades of the freshwater it needs to survive and crushing the economy of South Florida for a cash crop that is killing Americans, adding hundreds of billions a year in healthcare costs to the taxpayers, and jeopardizing the drinking water supply for nearly half of the population of Florida. Wow, that’s a mouthful.

Conchy the Flamingo: An Everglades Comeback Story?

When a wild flamingo showed up between two air strips at the Naval Air Station Key West on the southern tip of Florida in 2015, pilots feared a collision every day the bird stuck around. It eventually took a team of experts to capture and remove the animal, which they dubbed Conchy. The male flamingo was taken to Zoo Miami, where researchers discovered he was seriously ill, inflicted with liver damage from feeding in a polluted body of water near a restaurant.

EVERGLADES CALL TO ACTION

We are not going to be able to “quick fix” our way out of the pollution problems plaguing waterways throughout Florida. Hand feeding starving manatees is a last-ditch effort that cannot continue. For the Everglades and most waterways, corporate agriculture run amok is the most serious threat. The legislature needs to focus on the most serious threat. Pronto. 

Email and Tweet YOUR LAWMAKERS

HOW THE TAIL WAGS THE DOG

Explaining the broken water management system

What we are witnessing today is decades in the making – and completely man-made. Government has bowed to the financial interests of a handful of subsidized sugar growers. Here’s a quick 3-min animated video that will give you the highlights. 

Watch OUR VIDEO

This is not supposed to be normal

VIDEO WARNING: It pains us to share footage of dead manatee, it really does. But to demand the change necessary to stop this, the public must see it. Manatees continue to die throughout Florida at an alarming pace. The Northern Indian River Lagoon in Brevard County has been especially hard hit. A big thank you goes to Mike Knepper who continues to dog the agencies responsible for halting the filth that pours into state waters.

Watch MIKE’S VIDEO

Guides form alliance to protect environment

Two strong fishing guides associations in the Keys are joining forces to take on the misguided and dangerous legislation that will do more harm to seagrass, coral reefs and oyster beds than is already being done to them. Go, guides!

Read More in FLORIDA KEYS FREE PRESS

The state’s BMAP system is failing to reduce pollution. Our visual data analysis shows how.

Really good investigative reporting here: “For years, agricultural basins routinely have exceeded the state’s limit for phosphorus. DEP and the Department of Agriculture debate which agency is responsible for enforcement. The result: Little to no enforcement.”

Read More in TCPALM | USA TODAY

WELFARE FOR UBER-WEALTHY

Corporate greed is killing us, literally and figurately

Two billion-$$$ sugar corps subsidized by the taxpayers heave their toxic filth on their neighbors while starving the Everglades of the freshwater it needs to survive and crushing the economy of SoFla for a cash crop that is killing Americans.

Watch this QUICK VIDEO

Represent.Us spoof ad on lobbyist corruption airs on DC morning show

Receive billions in subsidies! Kill a World Heritage Site! Steal the public’s water! Dump toxic water on the neighbors! Make filthy runoff magically disappear! Burn toxins next to schools!

LobbyWOW! It’s like a bribe but completely legal! It’s perfect for any polluter and works on politicians from both parties! Get LobbyWOW! and turn your millions into literally billions!  *LobbyWOW! is not real. But corruption is.

Learn More About ANTI-CORRUPTION EFFORTS

How the sugar industry makes political friends and influences elections

Preharvest burning of sugarcane is cheap but toxic to humans, the air, soil and water. We know it. Science knows it. And the taxpayer subsidized sugar industry knows it. But if they can get enough complicit politicians elected, they can keep the ruse going. When will Floridians say enough is enough?

Read More in THE PALM BEACH POST

John Stossel: Big Sugar’s Sweetheart Deal

John Stossel explains the corporate welfare program that is literally financing, through political contributions and outrageous graft, the destruction of the Everglades, our waterways and the livelihood of too many Floridians. Big Sugar has rigged many systems. The time has come to #UnRig them.

Watch JOHN STOSSEL EXPLAIN

COULD ICONIC FLAMINGOS MAKE A COMEBACK?

Florida’s flamingos disappeared decades ago. That may soon change.

“As conditions begin to improve in the Everglades, habitat configurations are almost exactly right for a resurgence of the American flamingo.” If we can just give it a fighting chance, the Everglades will mean the difference between a strong, vibrant Florida and a collapsing economy.

And bonus: flamingos in South Florida again.

Read More in  NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

Flamingo found in Rookery Bay in Collier County and the first one photographed there

“As conditions begin to improve in the Everglades, habitat configurations are almost exactly right for a resurgence of the American flamingo.” If we can just give it a fighting chance, the Everglades will mean the difference between a strong, vibrant Florida and a collapsing economy.

And bonus: Flamingos in South Florida again!

Read More in NAPLES NEWS | USA TODAY

HELP SPREAD THE WORD!