North for the Harvest: Mexican Workers, Growers, and the Sugar Beet Industry

6 Cuba, Texas, and the Red River Valley

C H A P T E R 6 Cuba, Texas, and the Red River Valley the eisenhower administration’s move to block Cuban sugar from coming into the United States had important consequences for the industry throughout the nation, including the Red River Valley. On the one hand, the ban created an enormous void in the country’s sugar supply; the Cuba quota for the U.S. market had been nearly two million tons a year. When the Kennedy administration decided to maintain the embargo, it meant that the domestic sugar industry had an opportunity to expand its share of the U.S. market. In fact, to foster domestic output, the federal government suspended virtually all production quotas for the next four years. American Crystal and the other sugar companies responded to this situation by rapidly expanding their output. American Crystal increased contracted acreage between 1959 and 1962 by over 80,000 acres, a leap of about 33 percent. The valley’s sugar beet acreage climbed from 94,000 acres to over 143,000, which meant the region garnered the lion’s share of the company ’s increase. On the other hand, American Crystal and the other major sugar companies were stymied by the fact that their sugarprocessing facilities quickly reached maximum capacity. The period of spectacular growth, in other words, soon hit a ceiling. Between 1962 and 1964, American Crystal could add only 3,000 more acres and even had to reduce some growers’ acreage in the valley simply because the factories in East Grand Forks, Moorhead, and Crookston could not keep up with the huge tonnage of beets being harvested. Indeed, since American sugar processors could not expand their capacity quickly enough, much of the early 1960s shortfall in the sugar supply created by the ban on Cuban sugar was filled by foreign suppliers.1 This volatility within the sugar beet industry created tensions and anxieties among those involved as they adjusted to these developments. In the valley the company, its growers, and the betabeleros were 141 forced to make alterations within their relationships with each other. Technological advancements by the sugar beet industry, federal and state government policies, and the growing Mexican American civil rights movement further influenced how these groups interacted. In addition, in order to expand its sugar output, American Crystal had to add more growers and field workers quickly. The result was that the relative stability which had reigned in the valley’s sugar industry since the end of the Korean War disappeared. In this new and rather chaotic climate, the company and its growers began to reassess their relationship with one another to the point that the growers came to view American Crystal’s management decisions as a hindrance. The Mexican migrant workers they depended upon searched for new ways to find a more advantageous position within the valley’s sugar industry. american crystal boosted its production in the early 1960s in three ways. First, it simply increased acreage allotments to its cadre of growers. In 1959, the average acreage contract in the valley was about seventy-one acres. Three years later, each grower received, on average , about ninety-three acres. The growers had di∞culty expanding their capacity much more quickly than that. One reason was that American Crystal still required sugar beet acreage to lie fallow the year before it was sown. Growers had established patterns of yearly crop rotations that would have to be drastically altered unless they purchased more acreage. Many did seek to enlarge their land holdings , but land prices had risen even further since the 1950s, which made buying land an expensive proposition. The growers would likely need to buy more farm implements if they increased their operations. And more sugar beet acreage meant hiring additional workers and providing more housing for the migrants. All of these measures were expensive, and no one could be certain how long the federal government would allow this unlimited domestic sugar production to continue . What would happen to a grower who invested in more land, more housing, and more machines if sugar controls were put back in place at pre-1960 levels? In fact, once American Crystal had reached maximum output at its factories in 1962, it had to impose its own ceiling to expansion and actually reduced acreage allotments slightly. The average acreage allotment fell to about eighty-eight acres.2 142 / north for the harvest A...