Michigan Sugar Company
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Michigan Sugar Company is an
agricultural cooperative An agricultural cooperative, also known as a farmers' co-op, is a cooperative in which farmers pool their resources in certain areas of activity. A broad typology of agricultural cooperatives distinguishes between agricultural service cooperati ...
, based in
Bay City, Michigan Bay City is a city and county seat of Bay County in the U.S. state of Michigan, located near the base of the Saginaw Bay on Lake Huron. As of the 2010 census, the city's population was 34,932, and it is the principal city of the Bay City Met ...
, that specializes in the processing of beet sugar. Founded in 1906, Michigan Sugar sells beet sugar under the brand names ''Big Chief'' and ''Pioneer.'' Michigan Sugar operates four beet sugar factories, located in Bay City, Caro, Croswell, and Sebewaing, and operates three shipping and distribution centers in Michigan and the adjacent state of
Ohio Ohio () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Of the List of states and territories of the United States, fifty U.S. states, it is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 34th-l ...
. The firm has a
permanent employment Permanent employees work for an employer and are paid directly by that employer. Permanent employees do not have a predetermined end date to employment. In addition to their wages, they often receive benefits like subsidized health care, paid vac ...
headcount of 700 employees, to which are added 1,500 additional seasonal employees during the times of year when sugar beets are harvested and processed. During much of its history, Michigan Sugar was a publicly traded, private-sector firm. It was later a subsidiary of
Imperial Sugar Imperial Sugar is a major U.S. sugar producer and marketer based in Sugar Land, Texas, with sugar refinery operations in California, Georgia, and Louisiana. The company was established in 1843 and has undergone ownership changes multip ...
; after the 2001 bankruptcy of its former parent firm, Michigan Sugar became a cooperative in February 2002. Since that time the cooperative has been owned by a consortium of more than 1,000 sugar beet farmers, mostly located in Michigan's Thumb, who grow beets for processing. Michigan is a large producer of beet sugar:
"From farm fields to your table, the process of turning a sugarbeet seed into all-natural sugar takes many steps – some on the farm and others in the factory. It starts with planting the seeds each spring, continues through harvest in the fall and wraps up during an annual sugarbeet processing campaign at Michigan Sugar Company’s factories in Bay City, Caro, Croswell and Sebewaing."
Under the trade names of ''Pioneer Sugar'' and ''Big Chief Sugar'', Michigan Sugar's plants "produce roughly 1.2 billion pounds of sugar each year."


Controversies

The company's Bay City sugar beet processing plant located on South Euclid Avenue produces an offensive odor which can be described as burnt peanut butter, or vomit. Many complaints are received every year on the basis of the smell, and it is alleged to have been getting worse. The plant is located on the Southwest side of town, and winds prevail from the West, so very regularly much of the Southeastern and Eastern residential areas are affected. In 2004 the company settled with 3,800 families living near the plant for $1.75 million as the result of a class action lawsuit filed due to the offensive odor and pollution concerns. In 2017 the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality sued the company over the complaints mostly related to odors. The suit was settled in 2019 with the result that Michigan Sugar would pay a $300,000 fine and support or create two environmental projects totaling $262,500.


See also

*
Amalgamated Sugar Company The Amalgamated Sugar Company is an American sugar beet-refining company run on a cooperative basis. It was founded in 1897 in Ogden, Utah, and is now located in Boise, Idaho. The company markets its sugar under the White Satin brand. Founding ...
, a parallel firm centering on beet farms in
Idaho Idaho ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Monta ...
and
Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to its ...
* Western Sugar Cooperative, a parallel firm based in
Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the ...
* Michigan Sugar Festival, a festival held in Sebewaing, Michigan and dedicated to the
sugar beet A sugar beet is a plant whose root contains a high concentration of sucrose and which is grown commercially for sugar production. In plant breeding, it is known as the Altissima cultivar group of the common beet ('' Beta vulgaris''). Together ...


References

{{Central Michigan Agricultural marketing cooperatives Sugar companies of the United States Bay City, Michigan Companies based in Michigan Food and drink companies established in 1906 1906 establishments in Michigan Agricultural cooperatives in the United States