August 8, 2023 • 51 mins
It’s a battle for the heart of Florida and the soul of American politics as Celeste lays bare the environmental impact and political influence of the sugar industry.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Good mister President, good afternoon. Would you please station your
pulling for the record, Sir William Jefferson.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Clinton wind back two and a half years before this
now infamous grand jury testimony. It's February nineteenth, nineteen ninety six.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
That afternoon, President Clinton was in the Oval Office.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
It's actually President's Day, and President Bill Clinton calls Monica
Lewinsky at her Watergate apartment. It's been about five months
since they first met and started their intimate relations She
can tell from his voice something's wrong. So Monica Lewinsky
heads to the White House uninvited. Actually, she lies her
way in, saying I have these papers for the president.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
This was, you know, one of the only encounters that
they had in the Oval Office where there was not
even any kissing. They did hug, but then President Clinton
started to tell his intern.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Former intern actually, that he no longer felt right about
their intimate relationship and he had to put a stop
to it.
Speaker 4 (01:05):
He tells her, this affair can't go on.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
He was actually breaking up with his girlfriend, Monica Lewinski.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
She was welcome to continue coming to visit him, but
only as a friend.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
I've stopped it.
Speaker 5 (01:21):
I never should have started and I certainly shouldn't have
started it back after I resolved not to a nineteen ninety.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Six It's over, the President is saying, until they're interrupted.
Speaker 4 (01:32):
At that moment, the phone rings into the Oval office,
and it is one of his most powerful contributors.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
This moment has been recorded in.
Speaker 4 (01:43):
The document prepared by the prosecutor Kenneth Starr when he
was going after Bill Clinton.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
All right, so now should I just read what it says? Okay.
At one point during their conversation, the President had a
call from a sugar grower in Florida whose name, according
to Miss Lewinsky, was something like Fanulli.
Speaker 4 (02:05):
She calls him mister Fanulli Finulli.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Concerning Miss Lewinski's recollection of a call from a sugar
grower named Finulli, the President talked with Alfonso fan jul
of Palm Beach, Florida, from twelve forty two to one
oh four pm. If you can get the President of
the United States on the phone for twenty two minutes
(02:31):
while he is breaking up with his girlfriend, you've got
a lot of clout.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
It's rare that a phone call like this from a
mega donor becomes public knowledge. Usually these are firmly within
the soundproof walls of the Oval Office. So finding out
about something like this, well, it gets you thinking just
how powerful is the sugar industry. How much influence has
this multi billion dollar industry had on our politicians on
(03:03):
political decision making, not just in Florida but across the country.
And what are the real world consequences of that clout.
It's only once you take a peek behind the curtains
of that power that you can get a real sense
of what Dave Gorman, Edward Tuttenham, and the lawyers in
the story and the sugar cane cutters they represented were
(03:23):
truly up against. This call with Clinton was happening at
the same time as the case, after all. I'm Celeste
Hedley and from iHeartMedia, Imagine Audio and the teams at
Weekday Fun and Novel. This is Big Sugar, Episode eight,
The Battle of the.
Speaker 6 (03:40):
Swamp Jahote Britemen. May sure I am motumln my yet God,
(04:01):
my name is Betty Osceola. I'm a member of the
Makisuki tribe of Indians of Florida, and I'm also a
member of the Panther clan.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
So clear your mind of presidential scandals and impeachment proceedings.
Forget about that for just a moment. Now you're in
the Everglades, the massive one point five million acre wetlands
in the southern part of Florida. Betty's ancestors have lived
in the area for centuries, and when Betty was growing
up there.
Speaker 6 (04:28):
The wildlife was more abundant. In the morning, you could
hear the birds. You would hear ah, wash wash, and
when you'd look up, you see all these birds, like
thousands of birds flying over. Sometimes at night you hear
the owl making this hoo hoo noise. You would hear
(04:53):
the armandellos thomb, thomb, thomb, like thunderous. Sometimes you I
think a big creature was moving around in the bushes.
The next thing you know, this little armandella walks out.
The American alligators that we have here during the mating season,
they roar just they almost sound like a lion's roar,
(05:15):
a big, very deep, a very deep roar. But if
you were to go into the middle of the Everglades,
you would feel like you're disconnected from the rest of
the world. And this big, vastness of the Everglades itself.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
The Everglades is less ooh and ahd than whom. It's
not like Yosemite or Yellowstone National Park. You know, it's
not one of those places where tourists go and are
immediately awestruck.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
By the way. This is Michael Grunwald, an author, ex
Washington Post and political magazine reporter and longtime Florida resident.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Lived in Florida for Jesus Christ, Oh my God.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
So long. He can barely remember how long.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
I've No, that's wrong, Okay, I've lived in Florida for
eighteen years.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Or to put it another way.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
I came down to Florida to write a book about
the Everglades called The Swamp. I met a girl, and
I'm still here. So the Everglades, it's mostly just water
and saw grass.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
A type of grass that can grow up to nine
feet tall with a serrated saw like edge. It grows
in the wetlands.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
It's this just gigantic shallow water ecosystem, a real river
of grass.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
This gargantuan puddle stretches more than one hundred miles from
Lake Okeachobee all the way down to Florida Bay.
Speaker 6 (06:51):
You could put New York in the middle of the
Everglades and not even you know, cover half of the Everglades,
that's how big it is.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
But this lat wetland is super important. Not only is
the Everglades home to hundreds of species of animals, it
provides drinking water for about one third of Floridians and
irrigation for a lot of the state's agriculture. Sometimes the
Everglades is compared to kidneys. It improves water quality, filtering pollutants,
(07:20):
absorbing excess nutrients, keeping the stores of underground water replenished.
And for the Mikosuki tribe, it's deeply embedded in their
culture and spirituality. They even lay people to rest in
the Everglades so their ancestors DNA is in the environment.
And during the Indian Wars of the eighteen hundreds, about
(07:40):
one hundred Mikosuki refused to surrender and hid out in
the Everglades. Bettiaciola is a descendant of those who eluded capture.
Speaker 6 (07:49):
They sought refuge in the Everglades because those people that
were pursuing them weren't acclimated to this harsh environment.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
The US Army soldiers couldn't handle this spiky sawgrass.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
The worst stuff they had ever seen in their life.
You know, wading through it was like walking through broken glass.
Speaker 6 (08:08):
They weren't used to it, so our people knew that.
So they hid in the Everglades to survive.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
So why are we in the Everglades? Well, you can't
talk about sugar, Florida and power without talking about the Everglades.
Speaker 7 (08:24):
Everything was lovely in Florida, so it seemed. The sun
was kind, the syrup was fresh, the beach is white
and clean, and millions of Americans it was Valhalla.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
These days the area is beloved. Who wants to save it?
Pretty much everybody, But for much of the last century,
many people viewed it very differently, a wild beast that
needed to be tamed.
Speaker 7 (08:48):
There was trouble. Nature was prouding. The trouble was water.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Sometimes it was too dry, the water table declined, massive
droughts and fires, and.
Speaker 7 (08:58):
The only moisture left was in the sweat and tears
of those who made the land their living.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
Sometimes it was too wet.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Floods killed thousands.
Speaker 7 (09:06):
When the rains came, they inundated the plant lowlands of
central and southern Florida.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
In nineteen twenty eight, hard rains and a hurricane caused
the Lake Okechobe dyke to collapse. The resulting floods killed
up to three thousand people, mostly black migrant workers.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
Water was the enemy, you know, it was a constant
threat to people's way of life.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
So the government intervenes, swooping in like a hero to
crush this villainous liquid nemesis. Enter the US Army Corps
of Engineers.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
They built two thousand miles of levees and canals. You know,
they had pumps so powerful that they had to cannibalize
the engines from nuclear submarines, and they built what was
at the time the most elaborate water control system on
the planet. Now they really seize control of just about
every drop of water that falls in South Florida.
Speaker 7 (10:02):
Well here once, the fierce, uncompromising enemy of this long, wide,
low lying land will become its greatest ally. The rains
may come, but there will be no fear in them.
They are the waters of Florida's unfolding destiny, the bright
promise of Florida's glowing future.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
The water was captured, re routed, and siphoned out, making
way for acres and acres of real estate opportunities, so
that you.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
Could have eight million people living in this once uninhabitable swamp,
and the only problem was that it devastated a really
important ecosystem.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Florida and really America was indelibly changed by this aggressive drainage.
In nineteen seventy one, in what was once Marsh's, Walt
Disney opened a theme park. Presidents continued jetting to Florida
for vacations, and a local fast food joint Insta Burger
King lost the Insta in the restaurant's title and took
the nation by storm. A sector that economically matched tourism
(11:09):
in the state was agriculture, and one of the biggest
players in this extraordinary Florida boom time sugar.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
And that deep organic muck that they've gotten in the
northern Everglades was really well suited for sugar.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
From the nineteen fifties, hundreds of thousands of acres of
sugar cane plantations were created in the fertile soil that
was once the Everglades.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
You know, in the Everglades agricultural area, they grow vegetables.
They used to grow a little bit of citrus, but
it's mostly sugar.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
I've said it before, but you've almost certainly eaten sugar
from Florida. It produces about half of the country's sugar cane,
and since the water was brought under control, sugar has
become the most extensively grown crop in the state.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
You'll see sugar cane as far as the eye can see,
and since is incredibly flat, the i can see pretty far.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
So from the nineteen sixties, the good times are rolling
in Florida. Tourism is booming, the economy is booming, sugar
is booming. But as the decades passed, all is not
well with the Everglades.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
They were seeing this kind of advancing, kind of blob
of cattails that were displacing the original sawgrass.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Instead of the low bushes of sawgrass, thick tall walls
of cattail, a reedy plant with a spongy brown top.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
The cattails were much denser than the sawgrass.
Speaker 6 (12:41):
And when cocktails come into an area, it chokes out
an area. There's a one section of the Erglades where
all you see is wall to wall cocktail, and if
you drive it, you're's like driving through a tunnel of cocktail.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
There was just this really obvious change of vegetation from
a sawgrass e goes system that flowed to a cattail
ecosystem that didn't. That was clearly not a natural phenomenon.
Speaker 6 (13:07):
That's when we started seeing a bigger decline in the wildlife.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Animals started disappearing.
Speaker 6 (13:14):
My brothers would go out hunting, and it was getting
harder for them to find deer.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
The apple snails that used to reproduce in the sawgrass
were sort of crowded out.
Speaker 6 (13:26):
We weren't seeing as many rabbits.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
The snail kites that used to eat the apple snails
were no longer showing up.
Speaker 6 (13:34):
The places where I normally saw birds roost and you
would see the nest, I wasn't seeing them anymore.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
The Everglades was clearly becoming something that was not the Everglades.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
The animals and their natural predators were dying out, and
the water was changing too.
Speaker 6 (13:50):
When I was younger, the water was much more clear.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
But then algae everywhere.
Speaker 6 (13:58):
It's just like a really thick foam across the landscape,
but a very dark, gooey type of foam. It smells
like rotten eggs. It's worse than rotten eggs. It really
stinks like worse than sewer.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
The cattails, the algae there seemed to be a culprit.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
And people started to look at those sugar fields and
see that, you know, it sort of started right below them,
and it was spreading out. This was a unique ecosystem.
There was nothing else like it on Earth. And this
river of grass was becoming a discombobulated mess.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
For the Mikasuki. It's devastating.
Speaker 6 (14:43):
You can feel angry, feel frustrated. It could be very
overwhelming and depressing.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
So what was causing this change? Well, there was one factor.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
The fertilizers that were running off the Everglades agricultural area
were dumping phosphorus into the river of grass.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
Why was this a big deal?
Speaker 3 (15:05):
What made the Everglades the Everglades was that it es
centrally evolved with no phosphorus in it.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Phosphorus it's a mineral. It's essential to most living beings.
That's found in our teeth and bones, for example. But
the Everglades.
Speaker 3 (15:19):
Cannot tolerate phosphorus.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
What's normal in many environments would totally upend the Everglades.
So with this phosphorus injection, cattails were proliferating, algae was blooming,
and the ecosystem was in chaos.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
Something had to be done.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
And who was going to do it? Dexter Leytnin More
after the Break. Dexter Laytanin is an American attorney, formerly
a politician, and married to the first Cuban American Congresswoman,
Eleana Ross Laytnin. Before all that, he was a soldier.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
Dexter's a tough guy. He went to fight in Vietnam.
He was wounded there. He still has the scars. He
is a brilliant guy who was first in his class
at Stanford's Law.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
In the nineteen eighties, Dexter Laytnin found himself in the
position of US Attorney for the Southern District of Florida,
and he was no stranger to grabbing headlines. He started
carrying a plastic AK forty seven around as a symbol
of his aggressive stands on drugs, and his office came
out with a new motto, no Guts, No Glory. All
this earned him a nickname machine Gun.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
Just a really tough guy and a guy who really
grew up in the Everglades and grew up fishing there
and really loved the place. So he was really disturbed
by what was happening.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
By the pollution in the water. The explosion of cattails
and the decline in wildlife. So Dexter Laytnin began his
assault on the sugar industry. But he didn't go for
the industry directly. In his mind, the state of Florida
and its water management districts were responsible for regulating the
(17:02):
water quality. If the water was polluted, it was them
who'd failed. So Dexter began concocting a lawsuit which he
hoped would put a stop to the pollution from the
sugar cane farms. But there was a problem.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
He knew that there was no way his bosses were
going to sign off on the kind of lawsuit he
was thinking about, so.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
He continued quietly and secretly. He knew it might land
him in hot water with his bosses in the Reagan administration.
No con intended, but regardless, this machine gun pulled the trigger.
Here he is, in his own words, discussing it during
an interview with CBS.
Speaker 8 (17:39):
You know, I got wounded in Vietnam, and there's no
heroic message there except that you know, I've been to
the mountaintop and a bunch of subordinate people in the
Justice Department don't exactly overly impress me.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
So in nineteen eighty eight, acting completely on his own,
albeit officially on behalf of the federal government, Dexter Leyton
and sued the state's South Florida Water Management District.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
Saying that they were violating the Clean Water Act by
failing to stop the sugar industry from dumping pollution in
the form of their fertilized runoff into the Everglades. It
was a complete shock. It was certainly a shock to
his bosses.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
It was a shock because not only was he taking
on the state government, it was a massive attack on
big sugar, whose power and political influence that extended all
the way to the Oval Office, as you'll remember, had
made them virtually untouchable. The sugar industry operates one of
(18:41):
the most formidable lobbying forces in the state and the country.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
They are, without a doubt, the most powerful agricultural industry
and one of the most powerful industries in Florida. They
have dozens of lobbyists, and they've just made it very
clear that if you're not with us, we're going to
take you out.
Speaker 9 (19:04):
It's a completely legal form of bribery that our system
thrives on.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
This is Karl hyacin the big time journalist and writer
and native Floridian who knows the Sunshine State and its
quirky politics better than pretty much anyone else.
Speaker 9 (19:18):
There's all kinds of corruption. There's a kind you can prosecute,
and there's the kind that there are no penalties for,
and hiring lobbyists to knock on politicians doors is not
against the law.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
Lobbying is sort of an abstract term. Basically, these are
people who talk to politicians on behalf of industries or
companies to try to convince them to vote or act
in a certain way. Apparently they're called lobbyists because they
would hang around to the lobbies of places, waiting to
pounce on politicians and plead their cases. The Atlantic reported
(19:51):
in twenty fifteen that for every dollar spent on lobbying
by labor unions and public interest groups, large corporations and
their association now spend thirty four dollars. In other words,
the big guys spend thirty five times as much protecting
their causes as the little guys can fork out to
fight for their corner. Lobbying is thought to be by
(20:13):
some the reason there's very little gun control in the
United States. Why the prices of prescription drugs remain unnecessarily
high and why Internet giants have been able to sell
our data to the highest bidder. As you probably know
by now, in Florida, the two biggest sugar companies are
US Sugar and Florida Crystals. The latter, of course, is
(20:34):
owned by billionaire brothers and Cuban exiles Alfie and Peppi
Funhoul not funwly. What's mind blowing is that US Sugar
and Florida Crystals have individually outspent every other company in
the state on lobbying since the state first started its
digital lobbyist paid database in twenty eighteen. This lobbying has
(20:55):
gone on for decades.
Speaker 9 (20:57):
The armies of the best lawaists that money can buy.
They've got it worked out.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
At times, the two sugar companies combined employed more lobbyists
than there are state senators. Even in this video, which
was made to celebrate when Alfie and Pepe were inducted
into the Florida Agricultural Hall of Fame, a fellow farmer
let slip how much influence they've had.
Speaker 10 (21:23):
They've worked diligently on an environmental legislation and political legislation
in farm bells and nationally and state, and they've just
been a good.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
Voice, perhaps more powerful than their voices, their pockets deep ones.
A lot of their power at state and federal levels
is thanks to their generous boatloads of political donations. For example,
between twenty fifteen and twenty twenty, the Funhul brothers donated
some three million dollars to both Democratic and Republican candidates,
(21:59):
parties and packs.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
They are an extremely political family and they're smart. Alfonso
is a Democrat, Pepe is a Republican. Alfonso was Bill
Clinton's campaign finance chairman. Pepe was one of Bob Dole's
campaign finance chairman. So they make sure to play both
sides of the aisle, and they've played it very well.
Speaker 9 (22:25):
Back to Karl Hysen, Alfi could be a true blooded
Democrat and Peppy could be a sincere devoted Republican. I
don't know what their political leanings are, but it's convenient
to have two really rich brothers giving to the opposite parties.
It's very convenient for a corporation to have that kind
(22:46):
of reach into whatever side of the political spectrum is
running the show.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
Carl has said in the past alligators don't give to
political campaigns, and the van Houls do.
Speaker 9 (22:58):
Politicians aren't voting to say alligators, They're voting to please constituents,
particularly donors who give a lot of money. It's pretty simple.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
Now, I want to give you another really incredible example
of the industry's reach. It requires us to go back
to June nineteen seventy two. It's when the Watergate scandal
is shocking the world, and somewhere in the background of
all this, just out of sight, is Big Sugar Charles Bludorn.
(23:38):
If you remember from episode five, he's the millionaire executive
dubbed the Mad Austrian of Wall Street back in the sixties.
He's the owner of Gulf and Western Industries. The company's
holdings include Paramount Pictures. In fact, blue Doorn was a
big force behind getting The Godfather made, and by nineteen
sixty seven he also has his fingers in the sugar pie.
(23:59):
He's the of the South Puerto Rico Sugar Company and
he's got massive sugarcane farms in South Florida and the
Dominican Republic. So why are we talking about Charles Bludorn. Well,
since the Depression Congress had set import quotas to protect
American sugar farmers. It's included in a piece of legislation
called the Sugar Act. Under those quotas, blue Dorn knew
(24:22):
he'd be able to import a certain amount of sugar
into the country from his farms in the Dominican Republic.
Then in the early seventies there's a review of which
countries should be allowed to sell their sugar and how
much they could sell in the US. All the current
quotas were on the line, including from the Dominican Republic,
(24:45):
so there was a strong possibility his slice of the
pie could become a sliver. To put it mildly, he's
quite worried. So the mad Austrian lives up to his
name and makes a bold move. He goes straight to
the top. And as we all know, President Nixon would
have made a great podcaster because he loved to record things.
(25:07):
In February nineteen seventy one, a sound activated taping system
was installed in the Oval Office. Four months later it
would blink alive to the sound of Charles Bluehorn's voice.
Speaker 7 (25:21):
A pound See.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
This is an actual recording of sugar lobbying happening in
real time. A grower. Speaking directly to the President, Bluehorn
says he appreciates Nixon's time, then quickly moves on to
a long and forceful monologue in which he implores Nixon
not to decrease the sugar quotas for the Dominican Republic.
Speaker 7 (25:48):
We have alamandas and our share orders would certainly be
exactly affected to what happens.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
To the Dominican the park.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
He suggests that the decrease could fuel anti American pro
revolutionary sentiment in the dr These the kind of catalyst
that could cause a cut tale a place like Santa Domingo.
Then Nixon gives an impassioned reply, I have no I
(26:19):
have no patience with those that are against the Dominican Republic.
Speaker 9 (26:24):
Condicator.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
He's saying the State Department considers it a dictatorship, but
he doesn't give a damn. He wants the Dominican Republic
treated fairly.
Speaker 3 (26:36):
American Republican credits in the United States, that has to
be made clearly.
Speaker 5 (26:42):
The deal the United States, the war the United States
be punished.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
Then he says something truly astonishing. We've been shining a
flashlight on the lobbying power of the sugar industry. In
this tape, Nixon turns on a floodlight.
Speaker 7 (27:00):
That's, as you know, is the.
Speaker 3 (27:02):
Most effactory, the best paid.
Speaker 10 (27:04):
In the world.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
And yeah, you heard that right. They're murderous. He says
he'll do his best to maintain the Dominican republic sugar quota,
but it'll be tough because he's got some lobbi. Each
congressman and senator has some lobbies that he's pimping for,
and that his influence in Congress is limited because of
(27:27):
the enormous potency of the lobbyists. Charles Bluedorn thanks the President,
does not say because I.
Speaker 11 (27:34):
Appreciated he said it all a few words.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
And what happened to those quotas? According to a report
from the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, the
changes in the actual quotas for foreign countries were relatively
modest in nineteen seventy one, and the basic quota for
the Dominican Republic was increased. In other words, following all
this lobbying, the Matt Austrian got what he wanted. The
(28:02):
author of the report also wasn't sure quote how the
Dominican Republic acquired a significant increase in its basic quota
in the nineteen seventy one amendments to the Sugar Act.
End quote, but it did say it's easy to suspect
that favoritism had some role to play. But look, it
doesn't end here, because as the Watergate scandal begins to unfold,
(28:26):
it's clear Nixon is trying to raise hush money. And
in another recording we have a transcript for from June
twenty third, nineteen seventy one, the President is quoted as saying,
anybody that wants to be an ambassador wants to pay
at least two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Then he
brings up Charles Bluehorn. And while there's no evidence that
Bluehorn took part in any quid pro quot or helped
(28:48):
finance Nixon's Watergate defense, it looks very much like it
was on Nixon's mind because he says, I want him
to be bled for a quarter of a million two
more coming up after the break, I.
Speaker 8 (29:11):
Got a phone call come up here. Immediately I flew
up there with.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
My So back to nineteen eighty eight with Dexter Layton,
and he's the Justice Department attorney on a one man
mission to save the Everglades from Big Sugar's pollution, and
he's doing it by suing the Florida State Water Department.
Now you get it. He's not only attempting to cross
the state government but also the incredibly powerful sugar industry.
(29:36):
So it's no surprise he's being told by his superiors.
Speaker 8 (29:39):
To withdraw the lawsuit. They just said, you're out of control,
youth rases like that, withdraw the lawsuit.
Speaker 3 (29:45):
But they couldn't really stop them.
Speaker 8 (29:48):
They weren't going to get it withdrawn any way you
cut it.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
Florida Water officials are adamant they're going to fight the suit.
They say, it's not our responsibility to make the sugar
industry clean up their pollution. They begin to spend millions
on lawyers to fight their case in court, and of
course there's pressure from the sugar industry too.
Speaker 3 (30:11):
They've tried behind the scenes to get the lawsuit dropped.
They've done everything they could, sent armies of lobbyists to
try to weaken the various laws that the lawsuits pertained to.
Speaker 8 (30:26):
Oh, the squeeze was coming from Big Sugar with its influence.
They thought they were going to get a dropped. They
just thought for sure it would be dropped.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
But Dexter wouldn't budge. He was not going to drop
the suit.
Speaker 3 (30:42):
The sugar industry has always dominated the politics of Florida,
and they've always gotten their way in Washington as well,
But the courtroom turned out to be a venue that
they couldn't control.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
The state government and Dexter are in court, locked in battle.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
There was all kinds of debate over how many parts
per billion of phosphorus we're going to be legally acceptable.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
It dragged on and on and became one of the
most expensive environmental litigations America had ever seen. It cost
Florida taxpayers millions to defend. Then in nineteen ninety one,
the whole case takes a dramatic turn. There's a new
state governor in Florida. His name is Lawton Chiles, and
he's also a lawyer, and in an unprecedented turn of events,
(31:30):
the governor decides to represent Florida State himself against Dexter
Laytonen and his team. When Governor Chiles steps up in
court to defend what's going on.
Speaker 3 (31:41):
Lawton Chiles argued, no, you can trust us. I've got
a plan. We're going to restore about twenty five thousand
acres of sugar fields. We're going to turn them into
artificial wetlands. We don't need this federal oversight. We're here
to do the right thing.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
But then lawyers on the other side point out this
plan is not that.
Speaker 3 (32:01):
It was just talk. As long as the water was dirty,
the Everglade was going to have a problem.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
It's not looking good for the governor.
Speaker 3 (32:10):
So the hearing was going very badly for the state
of Florida. And finally Lawton Childs, who is a very
smart politician and could always see you when the writing
was on the wall, he completely flipped one hundred and
eighty degrees and he said, I'm here to surrender. I
brought my sword. Who can I give my sword to?
Speaker 2 (32:31):
Jaws hit the floor of the courtroom. He goes on
to say, what I am asking is let us use
our troops to clean up the battlefield now, to make
this water clean.
Speaker 3 (32:41):
That moment really set the stage for another thirty years
so far and counting.
Speaker 2 (32:47):
Two months later, Dexter Layton and Lawton Chiles announce a settlement.
It sets in stone a strict phosphorus limit, the largest
nutrient removal project in history. Dexter Layton has beaten Big Sugar.
The industry has to reduce their pollution.
Speaker 9 (33:07):
Big Sugar has done a fairly energetic job of trying
to polish and repair their image and the fan holes
along with you, as Sugar and the other growers have
become born again environmentalists.
Speaker 3 (33:20):
You know, at the time you had sugar runoff that
was going into the Everglades at fifty parts per billion.
Today it's probably down to twenty parts per billion. Ultimately
it needs to go to ten parts per billion. We're
still just poisoning the Everglades, just a lot less quickly,
but there's been undeniable progress made.
Speaker 2 (33:42):
It was a win, a rare triumph over such a
powerful industry. Their lobbying hadn't worked this time, so then
people dared to go further to take another shot.
Speaker 12 (33:55):
Vice President al Gore has a new plan to save
the swamp.
Speaker 3 (33:58):
In seven years, the Clinton administration really turned its attention
to the Everglades. I came up with this massive plan
to restore the Everglades, which Al Gore personally announced.
Speaker 11 (34:11):
Because what we are announcing is more than a restoration plan.
It is, in its purest sense, an investment in Florida's future.
Speaker 12 (34:23):
One point five billion dollars, the largest most costly ecological
repair effort ever proposed in the United States.
Speaker 3 (34:32):
Nineteen ninety six was an election year. Florida was a
swing state. Even then, election yeers are very good for
the Everglades. Politicians from both parties seem to remember in
election years that they are big fans of saving the
Everglades because it's a national treasure.
Speaker 2 (34:49):
So what was al Gore suggesting? Part one? They would
transform one hundred thousand acres of sugar fields into wetlands.
Part two? A penny a pound tax, a one cent
per pound tax on sugar produced on farms in the Everglades,
with the proceeds going to cleaning up the Everglades.
Speaker 3 (35:07):
To the sugar industry, that penny of pound tax was
a pure assault on its business model.
Speaker 2 (35:15):
If people voted for it, it's been estimated that sugar
farmers would have had to pay almost one billion dollars
over twenty five years. One dramatic sugar industry statement from
the time said that there are few times in the
life of a business when one event can have a
literal life or death impact. Here's a pretty outraged sugar farmer.
Speaker 13 (35:35):
Aldre appears to be an avid environmentalist. He came down
here to the Everglades and proposed a penny a pound
tax on us, which I believe is on American.
Speaker 3 (35:47):
You really took a political stand on an environmental issue,
trying to make it clear that the Clinton administration was
on the side of the Everglades and not on the
side of the agricultural and risks that were threatening the Everglades.
Speaker 2 (36:02):
Unsurprisingly, Big Sugar wasn't going to sit back and take this.
They'd just been forced in court to reduce the phosphorus
in their runoff. Now they might lose their land and
face higher taxes.
Speaker 9 (36:12):
To Big Sugar dumped tons and tons of money into advertising,
donating to politicians who opposed it. They emptied the bank
accounts to fight that.
Speaker 12 (36:23):
Growers are outraged SA same They feared the plan would
cost them forty thousand jobs.
Speaker 5 (36:32):
How are we supposed to live and make a live
and raising our families, putting kids to school in college.
Speaker 1 (36:38):
What are we.
Speaker 4 (36:39):
Supposed to do?
Speaker 9 (36:40):
It was just bare knuckle politics at the time, but
it showed you what they could do that industry could
do when they had their backs.
Speaker 5 (36:46):
Again, Seloll, we're the only people right now that are
paying for Evergrades restoration to clean our water up. To
single us out and blame us for all the problems
in the Everglades is just patently wrong.
Speaker 2 (37:03):
Needless to say, al Gore's plan was getting a lot
of attention, and not just from the sugar industry. Environmentalists
were swamping the state with pro tax messaging too. There
was even one wealthy individual who single handedly contributed more
than eight million dollars to the ballot initiative Save our Everglades.
Millions and millions were being spent in this fight, and
(37:24):
as the vote was nearing, opinion polls couldn't tell which
way it would go, would people vote for or against
the tax, And it was all this that led to
one of the most salacious moments in all of Big
sugar history.
Speaker 3 (37:37):
This will lead into the Monica stuff right.
Speaker 2 (37:41):
Because it was the same day that Vice President al
Gore made his Everglades restoration speech that President Bill Clinton
was in the Oval office Karl Hyson.
Speaker 9 (37:51):
It was during this period where also the President was
seeing Monica Lewinski, his intern in the White House. Alfie
was able to get a phone call through to the
President when he was with missus Lewinsky.
Speaker 2 (38:03):
Remember how the President interrupted breaking up with Monica Lewinsky
to take a call from one Alfonso fun Hul of
Palm Beach, Florida.
Speaker 9 (38:11):
Alfie was able to get through to Clinton, and I'm
quite sure that Peppi could get through to George Bush
when he wanted to. It does show you what kind
of access you get when you donate that kind of
money to a candidate.
Speaker 2 (38:24):
Remember, Alfie served as Bill Clinton's Florida co chairman in
nineteen ninety two, hosted events for the former Arkansas governor,
and if you dig through old newspapers, you can see
he frequented pricey fundraising dinners for the Clintons. On one occasion,
he donated one hundred thousand dollars at a dinner attended
by the likes of singer Jimmy Buffett, Don Johnson from
(38:45):
Miami Wece, and pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Anyway, we have no
idea what Alfie spoke to Bill Clinton about when he
called him in the Oval office that day, but we
do know that their conversation lasted more than twenty minutes.
Speaker 3 (39:01):
And it is probably not a coincidence that when the
Clinton administration came out with their final plan for Everglades's restoration.
It included only fifty thousand acres of sugar fields, not
the one hundred thousand that Gore had promised.
Speaker 2 (39:18):
And that penny a pound tax. After all the lobbying,
the advertising, the avalanche of money, it was voted down
and never implemented. Everglade's cleanup has been largely paid for
by taxpayers. Bottom line, the sugar industry the vun Hools
This time they won. One other side note, remember when
(39:45):
George Bush was running for president against Al Gore in
two thousand and there was a disputed result. Well, during
that time, when Gore and Bush were fighting to lay
claim to the presidency, the von Hooles lawyer Joe Klock
was one of those who fought in Bush's corner in
the Supreme Court. All this Watergate, Clinton, Lewinsky, Gorge, sugar tax.
(40:08):
It might seem like ancient history, but big sugar is
still able to pull the strings in political puppetry today.
Speaker 3 (40:15):
The sugar industry is as powerful today as it's been
for the last few decades. Still periodically takes out state
legislators or even county commissioners who try to mess with
its business. Model, and it's really hard to imagine anything
happening in the Florida legislature that doesn't have the seal
(40:38):
of approval from big Sugar.
Speaker 2 (40:40):
I wanted to first ask you, have you ever been
lobbied personally by somebody from the sugar lobby? Of course, yeah,
this is Florida State Senator Gary Farmer. He represents Eastern
Broward County. He's also a lawyer himself. We wanted to
talk to him to get an idea of what sugar
lobbying is like today.
Speaker 1 (40:59):
Lobby and interest groups abound in Tallassee, and they hire
very effective and talented lobbyists for sure.
Speaker 2 (41:08):
And because we noted that recently he'd voted against legislation
that would give farmers even more protections when lawsuits are
brought against them. This could have to do with the
annual burning of sugarcane, which reportedly releases harmful pollution in
the air. In other words, if someone sued the sugar
industry for making them sick as a result of the smoke,
(41:29):
the sugar industry could be protected from these kind of claims. Yet,
somewhat ironically, Senator Farmer voted against the farmers as.
Speaker 1 (41:38):
An attorney, and as the son of a judge. The
judicial branch, to me is the great equalizer. It's supposed
to be the area where David can take on Khliath
and win. I'm never in favor of protections that amount
to immunity or get out of jail free card just
because you're a wealthy industry.
Speaker 2 (42:00):
Senator Farmer was the only one in the House Democrat
or Republican to vote against it. So why were you
the only no vote?
Speaker 1 (42:10):
That's a great question. Either just a misunderstanding or ignorance
as to the effect of that legislation.
Speaker 2 (42:19):
Option one, the other senators didn't understand the legislation, Option.
Speaker 1 (42:24):
Two, a just slavish devotion to one particular industry.
Speaker 2 (42:29):
Or lobbyist, Option three, or.
Speaker 1 (42:33):
Trading a vote for something else. Those are really the
only three possibilities in my mind that would account for it.
Speaker 2 (42:42):
As of recording, Senator Farmer is working to repeal this legislation,
something he's sure the sugar industry isn't happy about. Lobbyists
even called him up after he filed the bill.
Speaker 1 (42:52):
I'm sure they're working feverishly to try to make sure
it doesn't get a gender or heard.
Speaker 2 (43:01):
You know, Senator Farmer isn't against lobbyists per se. He
sees thousands of bills every year and can't be an
expert on all of them.
Speaker 1 (43:10):
The reality is each of us is just a product
of our own environment and education and upbringing. If you're
just looking to understand and learn about an issue so
you can make an informed decision and vote, the lobbyists
can actually provide a benefit. Where the process gets little
sideways is when you're not looking to vote just on
(43:31):
the merits of the issue, but you're only looking to
support a friend who's been good to you or has
raised money for you in the past. That's, you know,
where the system begins to break down.
Speaker 2 (43:44):
All this brings to mind a quote, a kind of
mantra he thinks politicians should live by.
Speaker 1 (43:50):
Someone famously said years ago that if you can't take
their money, drink their liquor, and vote against them, you
shouldn't be in this business. And I think too many
of my colleagues don't understand that.
Speaker 2 (44:02):
That quote's been attributed to former California State Treasurer Jesse
Marvin Unru, also known as Big Daddy Unru, and he
was talking about lobbyist gifts. Oh and the actual quote
is somewhat ruder. So let's head back to the Everglades,
because you know, it's easy to look at these examples
and think the industry is rotten, but Michael Greenwald says,
(44:25):
when it comes to the Everglades, at least it's more
nuanced than that.
Speaker 3 (44:29):
Big Sugar is all often caricatured as this kind of
evil empire, and it's a little understandable because they do
wield such outsized political influence. But I do think it's
important to remember that, first of all, they're in the
Everglades because the federal government wanted them there, and in
(44:52):
the last few decades, as they've gotten more environmentally conscious,
they've done a better job of trying to manage their
impact on the environment.
Speaker 9 (45:01):
The most damage to the Everglades by pollution hasn't been
done by agriculture, although it's substantial. Most of it's been
done by overdevelopment. That was from cities, municipalities, it was
from highway systems. Big Sugar, I think, in some ways
became it was an easy target, but it also simplified
what was really a much more complicated assault on the Everglades.
Speaker 2 (45:25):
Actually, Senator Farmer told us about a study which showed that, yeah,
there are many different things causing pollution in the Everglades.
Speaker 1 (45:33):
For example, several years ago, I know that when they
conducted studies of the water in Lake Okachobe that among
the top ten chemicals they found above allowed or preferred
levels were prozac and splendor. And so the presence of
(45:53):
those chemicals in Lake Okachobe confirms that we've got a
major issue with leaky sept In.
Speaker 2 (46:01):
Other words, people were taking antidepressants and using sugar substitutes,
and all that sweet prosaic waste was being flushed right
into the wetlands, into the habitats of some now pretty
serene looking catfish. Betty Aziola still lives in the Everglades
National Park, and she has a wish list of things
(46:22):
that could improve the Everglades, including one, all the farms,
whether it's sugar or cattle or citrus, should be following
a mandatory system where they're reducing their runoff. Two stop
urban areas flushing pollution into the Everglades. And three, in
an ideal world, Betty would like to see all the
canal systems reconnected so the Everglades would flow like it originally.
Speaker 6 (46:46):
Did, but the main thing is for people to understand
it's not okay to hide your pollution, because that's what
they're doing when they send it to the Everglades. They're
sending their pollution elsewhere in their minds they've done something.
And also to value the Everglades for what it is,
a living, breathing system.
Speaker 2 (47:08):
She hasn't lost hope. Betty thinks back on one of
the last times she saw a Florida panther in more
recent years. She was in an area in the Everglades
National Park that the Mikasuki used for ceremonies.
Speaker 6 (47:20):
And I remember the kids were all playing, and I
remember my mom she said stop and she said there's
a panther walking up. Don't move, just be still. This
female panther just walked by. She didn't look at us,
she didn't try to growl at us. She just like
(47:42):
mosied on by, not in a hurry, and just walked
past us. A beautiful creature. You know. My initial thought
was like wow. And then in my head I kept
telling myself, don't move, don't move, remain calm, you know,
because you don't want to do anything to frighten it.
But I was just in awe of being in a
(48:04):
position to see something like that that close. I felt
hopeful that Okay, the pather is still here. I'm like, oh,
you still exist, You're still here.
Speaker 2 (48:26):
Michael and Carl do have one important takeaway. Okay, so
al Gore lost to Big Sugar. That was in the
political arena, but Dexter Layton did come out on top
in court, so there's something to be learned from that.
In the end, what went down in the Everglade shows
that the sugar industry is not invincible.
Speaker 3 (48:49):
The story of the Everglades shows that the sugar industry
can be beaten in court.
Speaker 9 (48:53):
Well, they've been. They've been beaten.
Speaker 2 (48:56):
So next time on Big Sugar, we're back in court
with some lawyers trying to do exactly that beat the
sugar industry on legal grounds. It's the final showdown in
the decades long class action. This podcast is following the
Ostiola case.
Speaker 3 (49:16):
The Ostiola case was on life support.
Speaker 8 (49:19):
They didn't have any money, and Dave's practice was in shambles.
Speaker 2 (49:22):
But new evidence might turn things around.
Speaker 3 (49:25):
We found the proof that was just amazing.
Speaker 10 (49:28):
Yeah, it was definitely, it was very cool finding it.
Speaker 6 (49:31):
Very cool.
Speaker 9 (49:32):
Up to that point, we had no idea that anything
like that existed.
Speaker 8 (49:35):
This was going to be a case we should clearly win.
Speaker 2 (49:39):
Could they pull it off? That's next time on Big Sugar.
Big Sugar is produced by Imagine Audio, Weekday Fund Productions
and novel for iHeartMedia. The series is hosted by me
Celeste Henley. Big Sugar is produced by Jeff Eisenman at
(50:01):
Weekday Fund Productions. It's executive produced by Kara Welker, Nathan Kloke,
and Marie Brenner. Story editor and executive producer is Joe Wheeler.
The researcher is Nadia Metti. Production management from Scherie Houston,
Frankie Taylor, and Charlotte Wolfe. Our fact checker is Sona Avakian.
(50:21):
Field reporting by Amber Amortagen, Sound design and mixing by
Eli Block, Naomi Clark and Daniel Kempsen. Original music composed
by Troy McCubbin at Alloy Tracks. Additional music by Nicholas Alexander.
Special thanks to Alec Wilkinson, author of the book Big Sugar,
and Stephanie Black, director of the documentary H two Worker.
(50:45):
Big Sugar is based on the Vanity Fair article in
the Kingdom of Big Sugar by Marie Brenner,
Good mister President, good afternoon. Would you please station your
pulling for the record, Sir William Jefferson.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Clinton wind back two and a half years before this
now infamous grand jury testimony. It's February nineteenth, nineteen ninety six.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
That afternoon, President Clinton was in the Oval Office.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
It's actually President's Day, and President Bill Clinton calls Monica
Lewinsky at her Watergate apartment. It's been about five months
since they first met and started their intimate relations She
can tell from his voice something's wrong. So Monica Lewinsky
heads to the White House uninvited. Actually, she lies her
way in, saying I have these papers for the president.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
This was, you know, one of the only encounters that
they had in the Oval Office where there was not
even any kissing. They did hug, but then President Clinton
started to tell his intern.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Former intern actually, that he no longer felt right about
their intimate relationship and he had to put a stop
to it.
Speaker 4 (01:05):
He tells her, this affair can't go on.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
He was actually breaking up with his girlfriend, Monica Lewinski.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
She was welcome to continue coming to visit him, but
only as a friend.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
I've stopped it.
Speaker 5 (01:21):
I never should have started and I certainly shouldn't have
started it back after I resolved not to a nineteen ninety.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Six It's over, the President is saying, until they're interrupted.
Speaker 4 (01:32):
At that moment, the phone rings into the Oval office,
and it is one of his most powerful contributors.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
This moment has been recorded in.
Speaker 4 (01:43):
The document prepared by the prosecutor Kenneth Starr when he
was going after Bill Clinton.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
All right, so now should I just read what it says? Okay.
At one point during their conversation, the President had a
call from a sugar grower in Florida whose name, according
to Miss Lewinsky, was something like Fanulli.
Speaker 4 (02:05):
She calls him mister Fanulli Finulli.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Concerning Miss Lewinski's recollection of a call from a sugar
grower named Finulli, the President talked with Alfonso fan jul
of Palm Beach, Florida, from twelve forty two to one
oh four pm. If you can get the President of
the United States on the phone for twenty two minutes
(02:31):
while he is breaking up with his girlfriend, you've got
a lot of clout.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
It's rare that a phone call like this from a
mega donor becomes public knowledge. Usually these are firmly within
the soundproof walls of the Oval Office. So finding out
about something like this, well, it gets you thinking just
how powerful is the sugar industry. How much influence has
this multi billion dollar industry had on our politicians on
(03:03):
political decision making, not just in Florida but across the country.
And what are the real world consequences of that clout.
It's only once you take a peek behind the curtains
of that power that you can get a real sense
of what Dave Gorman, Edward Tuttenham, and the lawyers in
the story and the sugar cane cutters they represented were
(03:23):
truly up against. This call with Clinton was happening at
the same time as the case, after all. I'm Celeste
Hedley and from iHeartMedia, Imagine Audio and the teams at
Weekday Fun and Novel. This is Big Sugar, Episode eight,
The Battle of the.
Speaker 6 (03:40):
Swamp Jahote Britemen. May sure I am motumln my yet God,
(04:01):
my name is Betty Osceola. I'm a member of the
Makisuki tribe of Indians of Florida, and I'm also a
member of the Panther clan.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
So clear your mind of presidential scandals and impeachment proceedings.
Forget about that for just a moment. Now you're in
the Everglades, the massive one point five million acre wetlands
in the southern part of Florida. Betty's ancestors have lived
in the area for centuries, and when Betty was growing
up there.
Speaker 6 (04:28):
The wildlife was more abundant. In the morning, you could
hear the birds. You would hear ah, wash wash, and
when you'd look up, you see all these birds, like
thousands of birds flying over. Sometimes at night you hear
the owl making this hoo hoo noise. You would hear
(04:53):
the armandellos thomb, thomb, thomb, like thunderous. Sometimes you I
think a big creature was moving around in the bushes.
The next thing you know, this little armandella walks out.
The American alligators that we have here during the mating season,
they roar just they almost sound like a lion's roar,
(05:15):
a big, very deep, a very deep roar. But if
you were to go into the middle of the Everglades,
you would feel like you're disconnected from the rest of
the world. And this big, vastness of the Everglades itself.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
The Everglades is less ooh and ahd than whom. It's
not like Yosemite or Yellowstone National Park. You know, it's
not one of those places where tourists go and are
immediately awestruck.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
By the way. This is Michael Grunwald, an author, ex
Washington Post and political magazine reporter and longtime Florida resident.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Lived in Florida for Jesus Christ, Oh my God.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
So long. He can barely remember how long.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
I've No, that's wrong, Okay, I've lived in Florida for
eighteen years.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Or to put it another way.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
I came down to Florida to write a book about
the Everglades called The Swamp. I met a girl, and
I'm still here. So the Everglades, it's mostly just water
and saw grass.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
A type of grass that can grow up to nine
feet tall with a serrated saw like edge. It grows
in the wetlands.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
It's this just gigantic shallow water ecosystem, a real river
of grass.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
This gargantuan puddle stretches more than one hundred miles from
Lake Okeachobee all the way down to Florida Bay.
Speaker 6 (06:51):
You could put New York in the middle of the
Everglades and not even you know, cover half of the Everglades,
that's how big it is.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
But this lat wetland is super important. Not only is
the Everglades home to hundreds of species of animals, it
provides drinking water for about one third of Floridians and
irrigation for a lot of the state's agriculture. Sometimes the
Everglades is compared to kidneys. It improves water quality, filtering pollutants,
(07:20):
absorbing excess nutrients, keeping the stores of underground water replenished.
And for the Mikosuki tribe, it's deeply embedded in their
culture and spirituality. They even lay people to rest in
the Everglades so their ancestors DNA is in the environment.
And during the Indian Wars of the eighteen hundreds, about
(07:40):
one hundred Mikosuki refused to surrender and hid out in
the Everglades. Bettiaciola is a descendant of those who eluded capture.
Speaker 6 (07:49):
They sought refuge in the Everglades because those people that
were pursuing them weren't acclimated to this harsh environment.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
The US Army soldiers couldn't handle this spiky sawgrass.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
The worst stuff they had ever seen in their life.
You know, wading through it was like walking through broken glass.
Speaker 6 (08:08):
They weren't used to it, so our people knew that.
So they hid in the Everglades to survive.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
So why are we in the Everglades? Well, you can't
talk about sugar, Florida and power without talking about the Everglades.
Speaker 7 (08:24):
Everything was lovely in Florida, so it seemed. The sun
was kind, the syrup was fresh, the beach is white
and clean, and millions of Americans it was Valhalla.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
These days the area is beloved. Who wants to save it?
Pretty much everybody, But for much of the last century,
many people viewed it very differently, a wild beast that
needed to be tamed.
Speaker 7 (08:48):
There was trouble. Nature was prouding. The trouble was water.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Sometimes it was too dry, the water table declined, massive
droughts and fires, and.
Speaker 7 (08:58):
The only moisture left was in the sweat and tears
of those who made the land their living.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
Sometimes it was too wet.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Floods killed thousands.
Speaker 7 (09:06):
When the rains came, they inundated the plant lowlands of
central and southern Florida.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
In nineteen twenty eight, hard rains and a hurricane caused
the Lake Okechobe dyke to collapse. The resulting floods killed
up to three thousand people, mostly black migrant workers.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
Water was the enemy, you know, it was a constant
threat to people's way of life.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
So the government intervenes, swooping in like a hero to
crush this villainous liquid nemesis. Enter the US Army Corps
of Engineers.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
They built two thousand miles of levees and canals. You know,
they had pumps so powerful that they had to cannibalize
the engines from nuclear submarines, and they built what was
at the time the most elaborate water control system on
the planet. Now they really seize control of just about
every drop of water that falls in South Florida.
Speaker 7 (10:02):
Well here once, the fierce, uncompromising enemy of this long, wide,
low lying land will become its greatest ally. The rains
may come, but there will be no fear in them.
They are the waters of Florida's unfolding destiny, the bright
promise of Florida's glowing future.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
The water was captured, re routed, and siphoned out, making
way for acres and acres of real estate opportunities, so
that you.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
Could have eight million people living in this once uninhabitable swamp,
and the only problem was that it devastated a really
important ecosystem.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Florida and really America was indelibly changed by this aggressive drainage.
In nineteen seventy one, in what was once Marsh's, Walt
Disney opened a theme park. Presidents continued jetting to Florida
for vacations, and a local fast food joint Insta Burger
King lost the Insta in the restaurant's title and took
the nation by storm. A sector that economically matched tourism
(11:09):
in the state was agriculture, and one of the biggest
players in this extraordinary Florida boom time sugar.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
And that deep organic muck that they've gotten in the
northern Everglades was really well suited for sugar.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
From the nineteen fifties, hundreds of thousands of acres of
sugar cane plantations were created in the fertile soil that
was once the Everglades.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
You know, in the Everglades agricultural area, they grow vegetables.
They used to grow a little bit of citrus, but
it's mostly sugar.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
I've said it before, but you've almost certainly eaten sugar
from Florida. It produces about half of the country's sugar cane,
and since the water was brought under control, sugar has
become the most extensively grown crop in the state.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
You'll see sugar cane as far as the eye can see,
and since is incredibly flat, the i can see pretty far.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
So from the nineteen sixties, the good times are rolling
in Florida. Tourism is booming, the economy is booming, sugar
is booming. But as the decades passed, all is not
well with the Everglades.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
They were seeing this kind of advancing, kind of blob
of cattails that were displacing the original sawgrass.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Instead of the low bushes of sawgrass, thick tall walls
of cattail, a reedy plant with a spongy brown top.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
The cattails were much denser than the sawgrass.
Speaker 6 (12:41):
And when cocktails come into an area, it chokes out
an area. There's a one section of the Erglades where
all you see is wall to wall cocktail, and if
you drive it, you're's like driving through a tunnel of cocktail.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
There was just this really obvious change of vegetation from
a sawgrass e goes system that flowed to a cattail
ecosystem that didn't. That was clearly not a natural phenomenon.
Speaker 6 (13:07):
That's when we started seeing a bigger decline in the wildlife.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Animals started disappearing.
Speaker 6 (13:14):
My brothers would go out hunting, and it was getting
harder for them to find deer.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
The apple snails that used to reproduce in the sawgrass
were sort of crowded out.
Speaker 6 (13:26):
We weren't seeing as many rabbits.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
The snail kites that used to eat the apple snails
were no longer showing up.
Speaker 6 (13:34):
The places where I normally saw birds roost and you
would see the nest, I wasn't seeing them anymore.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
The Everglades was clearly becoming something that was not the Everglades.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
The animals and their natural predators were dying out, and
the water was changing too.
Speaker 6 (13:50):
When I was younger, the water was much more clear.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
But then algae everywhere.
Speaker 6 (13:58):
It's just like a really thick foam across the landscape,
but a very dark, gooey type of foam. It smells
like rotten eggs. It's worse than rotten eggs. It really
stinks like worse than sewer.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
The cattails, the algae there seemed to be a culprit.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
And people started to look at those sugar fields and
see that, you know, it sort of started right below them,
and it was spreading out. This was a unique ecosystem.
There was nothing else like it on Earth. And this
river of grass was becoming a discombobulated mess.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
For the Mikasuki. It's devastating.
Speaker 6 (14:43):
You can feel angry, feel frustrated. It could be very
overwhelming and depressing.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
So what was causing this change? Well, there was one factor.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
The fertilizers that were running off the Everglades agricultural area
were dumping phosphorus into the river of grass.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
Why was this a big deal?
Speaker 3 (15:05):
What made the Everglades the Everglades was that it es
centrally evolved with no phosphorus in it.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Phosphorus it's a mineral. It's essential to most living beings.
That's found in our teeth and bones, for example. But
the Everglades.
Speaker 3 (15:19):
Cannot tolerate phosphorus.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
What's normal in many environments would totally upend the Everglades.
So with this phosphorus injection, cattails were proliferating, algae was blooming,
and the ecosystem was in chaos.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
Something had to be done.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
And who was going to do it? Dexter Leytnin More
after the Break. Dexter Laytanin is an American attorney, formerly
a politician, and married to the first Cuban American Congresswoman,
Eleana Ross Laytnin. Before all that, he was a soldier.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
Dexter's a tough guy. He went to fight in Vietnam.
He was wounded there. He still has the scars. He
is a brilliant guy who was first in his class
at Stanford's Law.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
In the nineteen eighties, Dexter Laytnin found himself in the
position of US Attorney for the Southern District of Florida,
and he was no stranger to grabbing headlines. He started
carrying a plastic AK forty seven around as a symbol
of his aggressive stands on drugs, and his office came
out with a new motto, no Guts, No Glory. All
this earned him a nickname machine Gun.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
Just a really tough guy and a guy who really
grew up in the Everglades and grew up fishing there
and really loved the place. So he was really disturbed
by what was happening.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
By the pollution in the water. The explosion of cattails
and the decline in wildlife. So Dexter Laytnin began his
assault on the sugar industry. But he didn't go for
the industry directly. In his mind, the state of Florida
and its water management districts were responsible for regulating the
(17:02):
water quality. If the water was polluted, it was them
who'd failed. So Dexter began concocting a lawsuit which he
hoped would put a stop to the pollution from the
sugar cane farms. But there was a problem.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
He knew that there was no way his bosses were
going to sign off on the kind of lawsuit he
was thinking about, so.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
He continued quietly and secretly. He knew it might land
him in hot water with his bosses in the Reagan administration.
No con intended, but regardless, this machine gun pulled the trigger.
Here he is, in his own words, discussing it during
an interview with CBS.
Speaker 8 (17:39):
You know, I got wounded in Vietnam, and there's no
heroic message there except that you know, I've been to
the mountaintop and a bunch of subordinate people in the
Justice Department don't exactly overly impress me.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
So in nineteen eighty eight, acting completely on his own,
albeit officially on behalf of the federal government, Dexter Leyton
and sued the state's South Florida Water Management District.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
Saying that they were violating the Clean Water Act by
failing to stop the sugar industry from dumping pollution in
the form of their fertilized runoff into the Everglades. It
was a complete shock. It was certainly a shock to
his bosses.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
It was a shock because not only was he taking
on the state government, it was a massive attack on
big sugar, whose power and political influence that extended all
the way to the Oval Office, as you'll remember, had
made them virtually untouchable. The sugar industry operates one of
(18:41):
the most formidable lobbying forces in the state and the country.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
They are, without a doubt, the most powerful agricultural industry
and one of the most powerful industries in Florida. They
have dozens of lobbyists, and they've just made it very
clear that if you're not with us, we're going to
take you out.
Speaker 9 (19:04):
It's a completely legal form of bribery that our system
thrives on.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
This is Karl hyacin the big time journalist and writer
and native Floridian who knows the Sunshine State and its
quirky politics better than pretty much anyone else.
Speaker 9 (19:18):
There's all kinds of corruption. There's a kind you can prosecute,
and there's the kind that there are no penalties for,
and hiring lobbyists to knock on politicians doors is not
against the law.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
Lobbying is sort of an abstract term. Basically, these are
people who talk to politicians on behalf of industries or
companies to try to convince them to vote or act
in a certain way. Apparently they're called lobbyists because they
would hang around to the lobbies of places, waiting to
pounce on politicians and plead their cases. The Atlantic reported
(19:51):
in twenty fifteen that for every dollar spent on lobbying
by labor unions and public interest groups, large corporations and
their association now spend thirty four dollars. In other words,
the big guys spend thirty five times as much protecting
their causes as the little guys can fork out to
fight for their corner. Lobbying is thought to be by
(20:13):
some the reason there's very little gun control in the
United States. Why the prices of prescription drugs remain unnecessarily
high and why Internet giants have been able to sell
our data to the highest bidder. As you probably know
by now, in Florida, the two biggest sugar companies are
US Sugar and Florida Crystals. The latter, of course, is
(20:34):
owned by billionaire brothers and Cuban exiles Alfie and Peppi
Funhoul not funwly. What's mind blowing is that US Sugar
and Florida Crystals have individually outspent every other company in
the state on lobbying since the state first started its
digital lobbyist paid database in twenty eighteen. This lobbying has
(20:55):
gone on for decades.
Speaker 9 (20:57):
The armies of the best lawaists that money can buy.
They've got it worked out.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
At times, the two sugar companies combined employed more lobbyists
than there are state senators. Even in this video, which
was made to celebrate when Alfie and Pepe were inducted
into the Florida Agricultural Hall of Fame, a fellow farmer
let slip how much influence they've had.
Speaker 10 (21:23):
They've worked diligently on an environmental legislation and political legislation
in farm bells and nationally and state, and they've just
been a good.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
Voice, perhaps more powerful than their voices, their pockets deep ones.
A lot of their power at state and federal levels
is thanks to their generous boatloads of political donations. For example,
between twenty fifteen and twenty twenty, the Funhul brothers donated
some three million dollars to both Democratic and Republican candidates,
(21:59):
parties and packs.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
They are an extremely political family and they're smart. Alfonso
is a Democrat, Pepe is a Republican. Alfonso was Bill
Clinton's campaign finance chairman. Pepe was one of Bob Dole's
campaign finance chairman. So they make sure to play both
sides of the aisle, and they've played it very well.
Speaker 9 (22:25):
Back to Karl Hysen, Alfi could be a true blooded
Democrat and Peppy could be a sincere devoted Republican. I
don't know what their political leanings are, but it's convenient
to have two really rich brothers giving to the opposite parties.
It's very convenient for a corporation to have that kind
(22:46):
of reach into whatever side of the political spectrum is
running the show.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
Carl has said in the past alligators don't give to
political campaigns, and the van Houls do.
Speaker 9 (22:58):
Politicians aren't voting to say alligators, They're voting to please constituents,
particularly donors who give a lot of money. It's pretty simple.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
Now, I want to give you another really incredible example
of the industry's reach. It requires us to go back
to June nineteen seventy two. It's when the Watergate scandal
is shocking the world, and somewhere in the background of
all this, just out of sight, is Big Sugar Charles Bludorn.
(23:38):
If you remember from episode five, he's the millionaire executive
dubbed the Mad Austrian of Wall Street back in the sixties.
He's the owner of Gulf and Western Industries. The company's
holdings include Paramount Pictures. In fact, blue Doorn was a
big force behind getting The Godfather made, and by nineteen
sixty seven he also has his fingers in the sugar pie.
(23:59):
He's the of the South Puerto Rico Sugar Company and
he's got massive sugarcane farms in South Florida and the
Dominican Republic. So why are we talking about Charles Bludorn. Well,
since the Depression Congress had set import quotas to protect
American sugar farmers. It's included in a piece of legislation
called the Sugar Act. Under those quotas, blue Dorn knew
(24:22):
he'd be able to import a certain amount of sugar
into the country from his farms in the Dominican Republic.
Then in the early seventies there's a review of which
countries should be allowed to sell their sugar and how
much they could sell in the US. All the current
quotas were on the line, including from the Dominican Republic,
(24:45):
so there was a strong possibility his slice of the
pie could become a sliver. To put it mildly, he's
quite worried. So the mad Austrian lives up to his
name and makes a bold move. He goes straight to
the top. And as we all know, President Nixon would
have made a great podcaster because he loved to record things.
(25:07):
In February nineteen seventy one, a sound activated taping system
was installed in the Oval Office. Four months later it
would blink alive to the sound of Charles Bluehorn's voice.
Speaker 7 (25:21):
A pound See.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
This is an actual recording of sugar lobbying happening in
real time. A grower. Speaking directly to the President, Bluehorn
says he appreciates Nixon's time, then quickly moves on to
a long and forceful monologue in which he implores Nixon
not to decrease the sugar quotas for the Dominican Republic.
Speaker 7 (25:48):
We have alamandas and our share orders would certainly be
exactly affected to what happens.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
To the Dominican the park.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
He suggests that the decrease could fuel anti American pro
revolutionary sentiment in the dr These the kind of catalyst
that could cause a cut tale a place like Santa Domingo.
Then Nixon gives an impassioned reply, I have no I
(26:19):
have no patience with those that are against the Dominican Republic.
Speaker 9 (26:24):
Condicator.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
He's saying the State Department considers it a dictatorship, but
he doesn't give a damn. He wants the Dominican Republic
treated fairly.
Speaker 3 (26:36):
American Republican credits in the United States, that has to
be made clearly.
Speaker 5 (26:42):
The deal the United States, the war the United States
be punished.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
Then he says something truly astonishing. We've been shining a
flashlight on the lobbying power of the sugar industry. In
this tape, Nixon turns on a floodlight.
Speaker 7 (27:00):
That's, as you know, is the.
Speaker 3 (27:02):
Most effactory, the best paid.
Speaker 10 (27:04):
In the world.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
And yeah, you heard that right. They're murderous. He says
he'll do his best to maintain the Dominican republic sugar quota,
but it'll be tough because he's got some lobbi. Each
congressman and senator has some lobbies that he's pimping for,
and that his influence in Congress is limited because of
(27:27):
the enormous potency of the lobbyists. Charles Bluedorn thanks the President,
does not say because I.
Speaker 11 (27:34):
Appreciated he said it all a few words.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
And what happened to those quotas? According to a report
from the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, the
changes in the actual quotas for foreign countries were relatively
modest in nineteen seventy one, and the basic quota for
the Dominican Republic was increased. In other words, following all
this lobbying, the Matt Austrian got what he wanted. The
(28:02):
author of the report also wasn't sure quote how the
Dominican Republic acquired a significant increase in its basic quota
in the nineteen seventy one amendments to the Sugar Act.
End quote, but it did say it's easy to suspect
that favoritism had some role to play. But look, it
doesn't end here, because as the Watergate scandal begins to unfold,
(28:26):
it's clear Nixon is trying to raise hush money. And
in another recording we have a transcript for from June
twenty third, nineteen seventy one, the President is quoted as saying,
anybody that wants to be an ambassador wants to pay
at least two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Then he
brings up Charles Bluehorn. And while there's no evidence that
Bluehorn took part in any quid pro quot or helped
(28:48):
finance Nixon's Watergate defense, it looks very much like it
was on Nixon's mind because he says, I want him
to be bled for a quarter of a million two
more coming up after the break, I.
Speaker 8 (29:11):
Got a phone call come up here. Immediately I flew
up there with.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
My So back to nineteen eighty eight with Dexter Layton,
and he's the Justice Department attorney on a one man
mission to save the Everglades from Big Sugar's pollution, and
he's doing it by suing the Florida State Water Department.
Now you get it. He's not only attempting to cross
the state government but also the incredibly powerful sugar industry.
(29:36):
So it's no surprise he's being told by his superiors.
Speaker 8 (29:39):
To withdraw the lawsuit. They just said, you're out of control,
youth rases like that, withdraw the lawsuit.
Speaker 3 (29:45):
But they couldn't really stop them.
Speaker 8 (29:48):
They weren't going to get it withdrawn any way you
cut it.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
Florida Water officials are adamant they're going to fight the suit.
They say, it's not our responsibility to make the sugar
industry clean up their pollution. They begin to spend millions
on lawyers to fight their case in court, and of
course there's pressure from the sugar industry too.
Speaker 3 (30:11):
They've tried behind the scenes to get the lawsuit dropped.
They've done everything they could, sent armies of lobbyists to
try to weaken the various laws that the lawsuits pertained to.
Speaker 8 (30:26):
Oh, the squeeze was coming from Big Sugar with its influence.
They thought they were going to get a dropped. They
just thought for sure it would be dropped.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
But Dexter wouldn't budge. He was not going to drop
the suit.
Speaker 3 (30:42):
The sugar industry has always dominated the politics of Florida,
and they've always gotten their way in Washington as well,
But the courtroom turned out to be a venue that
they couldn't control.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
The state government and Dexter are in court, locked in battle.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
There was all kinds of debate over how many parts
per billion of phosphorus we're going to be legally acceptable.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
It dragged on and on and became one of the
most expensive environmental litigations America had ever seen. It cost
Florida taxpayers millions to defend. Then in nineteen ninety one,
the whole case takes a dramatic turn. There's a new
state governor in Florida. His name is Lawton Chiles, and
he's also a lawyer, and in an unprecedented turn of events,
(31:30):
the governor decides to represent Florida State himself against Dexter
Laytonen and his team. When Governor Chiles steps up in
court to defend what's going on.
Speaker 3 (31:41):
Lawton Chiles argued, no, you can trust us. I've got
a plan. We're going to restore about twenty five thousand
acres of sugar fields. We're going to turn them into
artificial wetlands. We don't need this federal oversight. We're here
to do the right thing.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
But then lawyers on the other side point out this
plan is not that.
Speaker 3 (32:01):
It was just talk. As long as the water was dirty,
the Everglade was going to have a problem.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
It's not looking good for the governor.
Speaker 3 (32:10):
So the hearing was going very badly for the state
of Florida. And finally Lawton Childs, who is a very
smart politician and could always see you when the writing
was on the wall, he completely flipped one hundred and
eighty degrees and he said, I'm here to surrender. I
brought my sword. Who can I give my sword to?
Speaker 2 (32:31):
Jaws hit the floor of the courtroom. He goes on
to say, what I am asking is let us use
our troops to clean up the battlefield now, to make
this water clean.
Speaker 3 (32:41):
That moment really set the stage for another thirty years
so far and counting.
Speaker 2 (32:47):
Two months later, Dexter Layton and Lawton Chiles announce a settlement.
It sets in stone a strict phosphorus limit, the largest
nutrient removal project in history. Dexter Layton has beaten Big Sugar.
The industry has to reduce their pollution.
Speaker 9 (33:07):
Big Sugar has done a fairly energetic job of trying
to polish and repair their image and the fan holes
along with you, as Sugar and the other growers have
become born again environmentalists.
Speaker 3 (33:20):
You know, at the time you had sugar runoff that
was going into the Everglades at fifty parts per billion.
Today it's probably down to twenty parts per billion. Ultimately
it needs to go to ten parts per billion. We're
still just poisoning the Everglades, just a lot less quickly,
but there's been undeniable progress made.
Speaker 2 (33:42):
It was a win, a rare triumph over such a
powerful industry. Their lobbying hadn't worked this time, so then
people dared to go further to take another shot.
Speaker 12 (33:55):
Vice President al Gore has a new plan to save
the swamp.
Speaker 3 (33:58):
In seven years, the Clinton administration really turned its attention
to the Everglades. I came up with this massive plan
to restore the Everglades, which Al Gore personally announced.
Speaker 11 (34:11):
Because what we are announcing is more than a restoration plan.
It is, in its purest sense, an investment in Florida's future.
Speaker 12 (34:23):
One point five billion dollars, the largest most costly ecological
repair effort ever proposed in the United States.
Speaker 3 (34:32):
Nineteen ninety six was an election year. Florida was a
swing state. Even then, election yeers are very good for
the Everglades. Politicians from both parties seem to remember in
election years that they are big fans of saving the
Everglades because it's a national treasure.
Speaker 2 (34:49):
So what was al Gore suggesting? Part one? They would
transform one hundred thousand acres of sugar fields into wetlands.
Part two? A penny a pound tax, a one cent
per pound tax on sugar produced on farms in the Everglades,
with the proceeds going to cleaning up the Everglades.
Speaker 3 (35:07):
To the sugar industry, that penny of pound tax was
a pure assault on its business model.
Speaker 2 (35:15):
If people voted for it, it's been estimated that sugar
farmers would have had to pay almost one billion dollars
over twenty five years. One dramatic sugar industry statement from
the time said that there are few times in the
life of a business when one event can have a
literal life or death impact. Here's a pretty outraged sugar farmer.
Speaker 13 (35:35):
Aldre appears to be an avid environmentalist. He came down
here to the Everglades and proposed a penny a pound
tax on us, which I believe is on American.
Speaker 3 (35:47):
You really took a political stand on an environmental issue,
trying to make it clear that the Clinton administration was
on the side of the Everglades and not on the
side of the agricultural and risks that were threatening the Everglades.
Speaker 2 (36:02):
Unsurprisingly, Big Sugar wasn't going to sit back and take this.
They'd just been forced in court to reduce the phosphorus
in their runoff. Now they might lose their land and
face higher taxes.
Speaker 9 (36:12):
To Big Sugar dumped tons and tons of money into advertising,
donating to politicians who opposed it. They emptied the bank
accounts to fight that.
Speaker 12 (36:23):
Growers are outraged SA same They feared the plan would
cost them forty thousand jobs.
Speaker 5 (36:32):
How are we supposed to live and make a live
and raising our families, putting kids to school in college.
Speaker 1 (36:38):
What are we.
Speaker 4 (36:39):
Supposed to do?
Speaker 9 (36:40):
It was just bare knuckle politics at the time, but
it showed you what they could do that industry could
do when they had their backs.
Speaker 5 (36:46):
Again, Seloll, we're the only people right now that are
paying for Evergrades restoration to clean our water up. To
single us out and blame us for all the problems
in the Everglades is just patently wrong.
Speaker 2 (37:03):
Needless to say, al Gore's plan was getting a lot
of attention, and not just from the sugar industry. Environmentalists
were swamping the state with pro tax messaging too. There
was even one wealthy individual who single handedly contributed more
than eight million dollars to the ballot initiative Save our Everglades.
Millions and millions were being spent in this fight, and
(37:24):
as the vote was nearing, opinion polls couldn't tell which
way it would go, would people vote for or against
the tax, And it was all this that led to
one of the most salacious moments in all of Big
sugar history.
Speaker 3 (37:37):
This will lead into the Monica stuff right.
Speaker 2 (37:41):
Because it was the same day that Vice President al
Gore made his Everglades restoration speech that President Bill Clinton
was in the Oval office Karl Hyson.
Speaker 9 (37:51):
It was during this period where also the President was
seeing Monica Lewinski, his intern in the White House. Alfie
was able to get a phone call through to the
President when he was with missus Lewinsky.
Speaker 2 (38:03):
Remember how the President interrupted breaking up with Monica Lewinsky
to take a call from one Alfonso fun Hul of
Palm Beach, Florida.
Speaker 9 (38:11):
Alfie was able to get through to Clinton, and I'm
quite sure that Peppi could get through to George Bush
when he wanted to. It does show you what kind
of access you get when you donate that kind of
money to a candidate.
Speaker 2 (38:24):
Remember, Alfie served as Bill Clinton's Florida co chairman in
nineteen ninety two, hosted events for the former Arkansas governor,
and if you dig through old newspapers, you can see
he frequented pricey fundraising dinners for the Clintons. On one occasion,
he donated one hundred thousand dollars at a dinner attended
by the likes of singer Jimmy Buffett, Don Johnson from
(38:45):
Miami Wece, and pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Anyway, we have no
idea what Alfie spoke to Bill Clinton about when he
called him in the Oval office that day, but we
do know that their conversation lasted more than twenty minutes.
Speaker 3 (39:01):
And it is probably not a coincidence that when the
Clinton administration came out with their final plan for Everglades's restoration.
It included only fifty thousand acres of sugar fields, not
the one hundred thousand that Gore had promised.
Speaker 2 (39:18):
And that penny a pound tax. After all the lobbying,
the advertising, the avalanche of money, it was voted down
and never implemented. Everglade's cleanup has been largely paid for
by taxpayers. Bottom line, the sugar industry the vun Hools
This time they won. One other side note, remember when
(39:45):
George Bush was running for president against Al Gore in
two thousand and there was a disputed result. Well, during
that time, when Gore and Bush were fighting to lay
claim to the presidency, the von Hooles lawyer Joe Klock
was one of those who fought in Bush's corner in
the Supreme Court. All this Watergate, Clinton, Lewinsky, Gorge, sugar tax.
(40:08):
It might seem like ancient history, but big sugar is
still able to pull the strings in political puppetry today.
Speaker 3 (40:15):
The sugar industry is as powerful today as it's been
for the last few decades. Still periodically takes out state
legislators or even county commissioners who try to mess with
its business. Model, and it's really hard to imagine anything
happening in the Florida legislature that doesn't have the seal
(40:38):
of approval from big Sugar.
Speaker 2 (40:40):
I wanted to first ask you, have you ever been
lobbied personally by somebody from the sugar lobby? Of course, yeah,
this is Florida State Senator Gary Farmer. He represents Eastern
Broward County. He's also a lawyer himself. We wanted to
talk to him to get an idea of what sugar
lobbying is like today.
Speaker 1 (40:59):
Lobby and interest groups abound in Tallassee, and they hire
very effective and talented lobbyists for sure.
Speaker 2 (41:08):
And because we noted that recently he'd voted against legislation
that would give farmers even more protections when lawsuits are
brought against them. This could have to do with the
annual burning of sugarcane, which reportedly releases harmful pollution in
the air. In other words, if someone sued the sugar
industry for making them sick as a result of the smoke,
(41:29):
the sugar industry could be protected from these kind of claims. Yet,
somewhat ironically, Senator Farmer voted against the farmers as.
Speaker 1 (41:38):
An attorney, and as the son of a judge. The
judicial branch, to me is the great equalizer. It's supposed
to be the area where David can take on Khliath
and win. I'm never in favor of protections that amount
to immunity or get out of jail free card just
because you're a wealthy industry.
Speaker 2 (42:00):
Senator Farmer was the only one in the House Democrat
or Republican to vote against it. So why were you
the only no vote?
Speaker 1 (42:10):
That's a great question. Either just a misunderstanding or ignorance
as to the effect of that legislation.
Speaker 2 (42:19):
Option one, the other senators didn't understand the legislation, Option.
Speaker 1 (42:24):
Two, a just slavish devotion to one particular industry.
Speaker 2 (42:29):
Or lobbyist, Option three, or.
Speaker 1 (42:33):
Trading a vote for something else. Those are really the
only three possibilities in my mind that would account for it.
Speaker 2 (42:42):
As of recording, Senator Farmer is working to repeal this legislation,
something he's sure the sugar industry isn't happy about. Lobbyists
even called him up after he filed the bill.
Speaker 1 (42:52):
I'm sure they're working feverishly to try to make sure
it doesn't get a gender or heard.
Speaker 2 (43:01):
You know, Senator Farmer isn't against lobbyists per se. He
sees thousands of bills every year and can't be an
expert on all of them.
Speaker 1 (43:10):
The reality is each of us is just a product
of our own environment and education and upbringing. If you're
just looking to understand and learn about an issue so
you can make an informed decision and vote, the lobbyists
can actually provide a benefit. Where the process gets little
sideways is when you're not looking to vote just on
(43:31):
the merits of the issue, but you're only looking to
support a friend who's been good to you or has
raised money for you in the past. That's, you know,
where the system begins to break down.
Speaker 2 (43:44):
All this brings to mind a quote, a kind of
mantra he thinks politicians should live by.
Speaker 1 (43:50):
Someone famously said years ago that if you can't take
their money, drink their liquor, and vote against them, you
shouldn't be in this business. And I think too many
of my colleagues don't understand that.
Speaker 2 (44:02):
That quote's been attributed to former California State Treasurer Jesse
Marvin Unru, also known as Big Daddy Unru, and he
was talking about lobbyist gifts. Oh and the actual quote
is somewhat ruder. So let's head back to the Everglades,
because you know, it's easy to look at these examples
and think the industry is rotten, but Michael Greenwald says,
(44:25):
when it comes to the Everglades, at least it's more
nuanced than that.
Speaker 3 (44:29):
Big Sugar is all often caricatured as this kind of
evil empire, and it's a little understandable because they do
wield such outsized political influence. But I do think it's
important to remember that, first of all, they're in the
Everglades because the federal government wanted them there, and in
(44:52):
the last few decades, as they've gotten more environmentally conscious,
they've done a better job of trying to manage their
impact on the environment.
Speaker 9 (45:01):
The most damage to the Everglades by pollution hasn't been
done by agriculture, although it's substantial. Most of it's been
done by overdevelopment. That was from cities, municipalities, it was
from highway systems. Big Sugar, I think, in some ways
became it was an easy target, but it also simplified
what was really a much more complicated assault on the Everglades.
Speaker 2 (45:25):
Actually, Senator Farmer told us about a study which showed that, yeah,
there are many different things causing pollution in the Everglades.
Speaker 1 (45:33):
For example, several years ago, I know that when they
conducted studies of the water in Lake Okachobe that among
the top ten chemicals they found above allowed or preferred
levels were prozac and splendor. And so the presence of
(45:53):
those chemicals in Lake Okachobe confirms that we've got a
major issue with leaky sept In.
Speaker 2 (46:01):
Other words, people were taking antidepressants and using sugar substitutes,
and all that sweet prosaic waste was being flushed right
into the wetlands, into the habitats of some now pretty
serene looking catfish. Betty Aziola still lives in the Everglades
National Park, and she has a wish list of things
(46:22):
that could improve the Everglades, including one, all the farms,
whether it's sugar or cattle or citrus, should be following
a mandatory system where they're reducing their runoff. Two stop
urban areas flushing pollution into the Everglades. And three, in
an ideal world, Betty would like to see all the
canal systems reconnected so the Everglades would flow like it originally.
Speaker 6 (46:46):
Did, but the main thing is for people to understand
it's not okay to hide your pollution, because that's what
they're doing when they send it to the Everglades. They're
sending their pollution elsewhere in their minds they've done something.
And also to value the Everglades for what it is,
a living, breathing system.
Speaker 2 (47:08):
She hasn't lost hope. Betty thinks back on one of
the last times she saw a Florida panther in more
recent years. She was in an area in the Everglades
National Park that the Mikasuki used for ceremonies.
Speaker 6 (47:20):
And I remember the kids were all playing, and I
remember my mom she said stop and she said there's
a panther walking up. Don't move, just be still. This
female panther just walked by. She didn't look at us,
she didn't try to growl at us. She just like
(47:42):
mosied on by, not in a hurry, and just walked
past us. A beautiful creature. You know. My initial thought
was like wow. And then in my head I kept
telling myself, don't move, don't move, remain calm, you know,
because you don't want to do anything to frighten it.
But I was just in awe of being in a
(48:04):
position to see something like that that close. I felt
hopeful that Okay, the pather is still here. I'm like, oh,
you still exist, You're still here.
Speaker 2 (48:26):
Michael and Carl do have one important takeaway. Okay, so
al Gore lost to Big Sugar. That was in the
political arena, but Dexter Layton did come out on top
in court, so there's something to be learned from that.
In the end, what went down in the Everglade shows
that the sugar industry is not invincible.
Speaker 3 (48:49):
The story of the Everglades shows that the sugar industry
can be beaten in court.
Speaker 9 (48:53):
Well, they've been. They've been beaten.
Speaker 2 (48:56):
So next time on Big Sugar, we're back in court
with some lawyers trying to do exactly that beat the
sugar industry on legal grounds. It's the final showdown in
the decades long class action. This podcast is following the
Ostiola case.
Speaker 3 (49:16):
The Ostiola case was on life support.
Speaker 8 (49:19):
They didn't have any money, and Dave's practice was in shambles.
Speaker 2 (49:22):
But new evidence might turn things around.
Speaker 3 (49:25):
We found the proof that was just amazing.
Speaker 10 (49:28):
Yeah, it was definitely, it was very cool finding it.
Speaker 6 (49:31):
Very cool.
Speaker 9 (49:32):
Up to that point, we had no idea that anything
like that existed.
Speaker 8 (49:35):
This was going to be a case we should clearly win.
Speaker 2 (49:39):
Could they pull it off? That's next time on Big Sugar.
Big Sugar is produced by Imagine Audio, Weekday Fund Productions
and novel for iHeartMedia. The series is hosted by me
Celeste Henley. Big Sugar is produced by Jeff Eisenman at
(50:01):
Weekday Fund Productions. It's executive produced by Kara Welker, Nathan Kloke,
and Marie Brenner. Story editor and executive producer is Joe Wheeler.
The researcher is Nadia Metti. Production management from Scherie Houston,
Frankie Taylor, and Charlotte Wolfe. Our fact checker is Sona Avakian.
(50:21):
Field reporting by Amber Amortagen, Sound design and mixing by
Eli Block, Naomi Clark and Daniel Kempsen. Original music composed
by Troy McCubbin at Alloy Tracks. Additional music by Nicholas Alexander.
Special thanks to Alec Wilkinson, author of the book Big Sugar,
and Stephanie Black, director of the documentary H two Worker.
(50:45):
Big Sugar is based on the Vanity Fair article in
the Kingdom of Big Sugar by Marie Brenner,
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