Big Sugar Sued Over Fires in Florida’s Sugar Cane Fields (1)

Big Sugar is being sued for health problems that environmental advocates have blamed on the annual burning of Florida’s sugar cane fields.

The would-be class action was filed June 4 on behalf of over 40,000 residents of the impoverished, rural communities squeezed between the fields and Lake Okeechobee. It asks a judge in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida to block future pre-harvest fires in the fields.

It also seeks economic damages from the sugar cane producers and a court-supervised health monitoring program.

“Shutting them down is not the goal. The goal is full ...