EAST GRAND FORKS The American Crystal Sugar Company plant in East Grand Forks has been fined $350,000 for air quality violations, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency announced Tuesday morning. Based on a new Minnesota law, part of the penalty funds will go to the Polk-Norman-Mahnomen Community Health Board. Among the violations was a release of more hydrogen sulfide and particulate matter than its permit allows, according to information from the MPCA. After staff inspections and reviewing company records, the MPCA determined American Crystal's East Grand Forks plant: Failed to properl ..read more

When the global coronavirus pandemic hit in 2020, many U.S. states issued direct stay-at-home orders to their residents in an attempt to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Due to their critical role in the U.S. food supply chain, farmers and farm and factory workers were deemed “essential” by the U.S. government. We couldn’t just isolate in our houses because we had a job to do making sure that American-made sugar was available to consumers. And we continued to do our jobs over the time that the different phases of restriction were implemented by the states to keep people safe. We did our jobs lo ..read more

Valentines has come and went Without a sonnet writ, Now It’s time to grab a pen And fire up my wit. At the end of March, well It was 40 years ago, A gal stood there and said That it would be forever so. That we even met Was an amazing circumstance, The timing of it all meant There was only just one chance. But this time the gods of chance Smiled down on me, And after 30 days I got Another chance to see The gal that in a couple years Would become my wife, Then move out to the country, And begin the farming life. There are certain things to learn When first you start to ..read more

Working on an eastern North Dakota diversified smalls grains and row crop farm during high school planted in Mark Anfinrud an interest in agriculture that grew into a career in the sugarbeet industry that spanned the United States. During his career Anfinrud’s work in the beet industry included screening a variety of positions, including screening germplasm, for a private sugarbeet company and managing the U.S. Department of Agriculture's seed quality laboratory and assisting with its seed production. Anfinrud has been surrounded by agriculture his entire life, growing up in North Dakota sm ..read more

American Crystal Sugar Co. stock hit a record high of $6,000 per share in March 2024. The company had brokered a total of 27 shares at that price as of March 25, 2024, in three separate transactions of five shares and one of 12 shares. Sugarbeet shares typically are brokered in the fall and the next spring. Other U.S. sugar cooperatives contacted by Agweek did not return messages asking about the number of shares that were sold and the share pricess or declined to be interviewed for this story. Share sales in cooperatives other than American Crystal Sugar are handled internally rather tha ..read more

Anyone who has taken young children on a long road trip must repeatedly answer the question, “How much longer before we get there?” That same impatient question swirls around the completion of a new farm bill. Congress just finished passing the 2024 spending bills to keep the government funded, at least seven months after it should have been completed. They have just six months to pass the 12 appropriations bills before Sept. 30. If you ran your beet operation in the same manner, you would be planting in April 2024, but you would not have harvested last year’s crop until the end of May! A ..read more

Michigan Sugar Co. plans to bring its historic, new molasses desugarization facility online this spring. Ground was broken on the plant in 2022, according to a March 26, 2024, Michigan Sugar Co. Facebook post. When the 22,000-square-foot facility is up and running beginning in May, the Bay City, Michigan-based company will have the capacity to process 100% of the molasses produced as a byproduct of the sugar extraction process, Michigan Sugar said Desugaring all of the molasses will allow the company to produce as much as an additional 80 million pounds of pure, all-natural sugar annually ..read more

Three companies that use granulated sugar have filed antitrust lawsuits against U.S. companies, including United Sugar Producers and Refiners, which markets the commodity for American Crystal Sugar Co., Minn-Dak Farmers Co-op and other companies. The lawsuits filed in U.S. District Court in Minnesota claim that sugarbeet and sugar cane companies have joined together to raise the price of sugar to end-users such as bakeries and restaurants. Morelos Bakery LLC, St. Paul, Minnesota; Great Harvest Bread Co., Duluth, Minnesota and Connecticut restaurants WNT LLC and WNT Farmington LLC argue that ..read more

GRAND FORKS, N.D From the farm to the factory, sugarbeet production has become more profitable and efficient during the nearly 40 years that have passed since Mark Anfinrud began working in the industry. Anfinrud, a North Dakota native who has worked in the sugarbeet industry across the United States, spoke to farmers at the second day of the International Sugar Beet Institute about what the industry can learn from the past as it moves toward the future. The International Sugar Beet Institute draws farmers from North Dakota, Minnesota and the southern Plains of Canada to learn from vendors ..read more

GRAND FORKS, N.D. It's not every day you get to see a robot that finds and eliminates weeds, all while being powered by the sun. But attendees of the first day of the International Sugar Beet Institute got to see one in action. ISBI, an annual sugarbeet-focused show that rotates between Grand Forks and Fargo, pulls in sugarbeet growers largely from North Dakota and Minnesota to learn from vendors and speakers. The show kicked off on Wednesday, March 14, at the Alerus Center in Grand Forks and continued on Thursday, March 15. Among the vendors was Aigen, with its four-wheeled, solar-powered ..read more