South Texas was once home to the farmer-owned Rio Grande Valley Sugar Growers cooperative. It was comprised of more than 100 family farmers growing sugarcane and the raw sugar mill in Santa Rosa. The American Sugar Alliance says due to Mexico’s failure to deliver the water it owes the United States under the 1944 Water Treaty, the mill is now shuttered, and the few remaining acres of sugarcane were plowed under. Nearly 40,000 acres of sugarcane once grew in the Rio Grande Valley, fueling the sugar mill and providing approximately 500 jobs critical to the surrounding rural communities. With irrigation water supplies at critical levels and with little water coming from Mexico, growers were forced to make the hard decision to plow under their sugarcane. In early 2023, farmers planted 34,000 acres and were down to 10,000 acres in early 2024. Now, zero acres are getting planted in the valley.
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