captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- >> hello, i am llewellyn king, the host of "white house chronicle." i am going to do a public- service announcement of my own. i have a keen interest and i

have been working to publicize chronic fatigue syndrome. one of the things i have done is to establish a channel on youtube and facebook that has interviews with doctors and those who suffer. this affects millions of americans. go to mecsf alert. there are many episodes there. you can go there and see them very easily. also, facebook is there with all of the episodes. we have also done some programs of part of this broadcast and they can be seen and our regular website for this broadcast,

whitehousechronicle.com. we have had numerous responses. we have had hundreds of sufferers who have written and it has been on the most extraordinary experience. i've been a journalist for a long time and i not used to getting mail and getting banks. go and look, get interested. we have a very interesting program today. this is in keeping with the holidays. this has one of the most interesting professional men in washington. i will be back with him for an unusual discussion, i promise you. >> many have spoken out on the need to transition to a clean energy future. we are acting. by 2020 we are committed to displacing or offsetting 13

million metric tons of greenhouse gases annually, helping people reduce their emissions, and offering more low carbon electricity. we are taking action and seeing results. "white house chronicle" is produced in conjunction with howard university television. now, our host, llewellyn king and co-host, linda gasparello. >> hello again and thank you for coming along. i am joined as always by linda gasparello. >> i like the way you pronounced my name, by the way. >> i am like that woman on npr. i am reading all of these

books, detective stories about the venice. not much detection but a lot of eating. we have with us our special guest, linda gasparello of the -- our special guest, larry graham of the national confectioners association. he looks out for the makers of candy. there are a great number of them, aren't there? >> yes, there are. thank you for having us. >> the pleasure of hours. you brought us the goods. >> keep in joining us. there is a lot of interesting thing about candy. -- keep enjoying this. there is no other food where so many manufacturers are making the same food. we represent about 400 companies. when you think of snacks, soft

drink, spaghetti, there are very few manufacturers but so many people and some companies are still entering into this business. we have a trade show every year in chicago. every year we have 30, 40, 50 new companies. a lot of artists in chocolate makers, people that come up with new lollipops. people think that it is oil and energy that drives this economy >> but it is candy and chocolate. -- that drives this economy, but it is candy and chocolate. >> this is "white house chronicle." i hear a lot. people say that there is too much sugar, refine this, refine that. how do you answer those charges? are you under any political threat?

nazis on thefood march. >> there is no science that implicates that there's anything wrong with sugar except too much, which is with a lot of foods. in that sense, 2% of calories in fromolescent's diet come candy products. we're not the cause of obesity. we are not an essential food, although for many people they might say that we are an essential food. you cannot live without chocolate. candy, chocolate, and gum can fit into a healthy diet. there are many studies that show that you need to be satisfied with what you eat. if you deny yourself something,

those types never work. if you are happy with your diet and a little sweetness makes you happy, then you tend to control your weight and be more healthy. that is the message we are trying to get out. we are not a meal replacement but you can have some sweetness in your diet. >> you should tell the people in the administration and congress what you have told me. >> mrs. obama has a program called let's move and this has encouraged kids to get out and exercise and encouraged better diets. they have been very reasonable and she has been very reasonable about talking about diet and health. you can have ice-cream, sweeteners, candy. we have participated in the easter egg roll at the white house and also halloween. this administration has for the most part been pretty reasonable about our products

and a good diet. >> how many manufacturers are there? >> it is hard to know. >> how many members do you have? >> we have 700 members. >> many more manufacturers. >> many more. there are also chocolate shops in the country and they are not our members but there are 500 or 600 of those. there are probably 1000 manufacturers in the united states. candy is a global industry and a global product. lots of european countries and companies are trying to sell their products here. for one eye for started this job, americans ate american candy, the british 8 british candy, and the french 8 french candy. -- the british ate british candy, the french ate french

candy. >> how big is this? >> in the u.s., this is a $30 billion business. >> getting back to the administration, one of the things that they are worried about, as are all of the candidates for the presidency in 2012, it is the economy. where does can be fit into the economy? we have a chart that talks about 600,000 jobs being created by them. >> those 600,000 jobs, those are in the sugar-using industries. those would be cereal companies and any manufacturer that uses sugar. we are relatively small industry. you probably have 80, 90, 100,000 jobs in our industry.

>> that is considerable, though. mostly concentrated where again? >> all over the u.s. we are big players, nastily, hershey, and -- nestle, hershey, kraft. many of these are family industries. >> what are the concerns these days? >> certainly input costs. if you look at the ingredients, they are going through the roof. cocoa is high, milk is high, and that's our high, sugar is high -- nuts are high, sugar is high. the u.s. government has a sugar program. this program protect the growers

and the refiners of sugar. the growers would be it sugarcane in texas, louisiana, florida. sugar beets in the midwest. because of this program which it disallows sugar from coming outside of our country, our member companies pay double the world price for sugar. >> double the world price. we pay a lot for our sweet tooths to protect our industry. the agricultural bill survives. >> this bill has been around since the depression, as i said. the sugar lobby in washington is a very strong lobby. we are not trying to harm the growers or the refiners because we need sugar and we need american sugar but what we say is that we have to compete in a free market. we have to compete against

products from all over the world. so should the day. right now, they are protected. >> of the sugar is used for about 10% of our gasoline and we could import it for half the price from brazil but we don't. we make it from corn which pushes up those costs which includes high fructose corn syrup. >> in the sugar program, there is a provision in there that says if any excess sugar should be used for the ethanol program but this continues to drive up the price of sugar. many of the smaller companies are building up factories in canada and in mexico. >> we have seen this a lot to learn to we have seen this in cookies. >> you can access sugar in

canada and mexico. >> tell us about chocolate. people are crazy for chocolate. chocolate in iraq. >> cocoa. >> the cocoa pod. chocolate is a fruit. >> here are the beans. >> inside of the pot are 40 or 50 beans. this pod is opened up with a machete, the beans are fermented and then dried. >> where is most of this from? >> most of the cocoa comes from west africa. although this is the original product of the americas. cocoa originated in southern

mexico and northern south america and it was brought over. >> hence mole in the mexican diet. >> correct. it needs shade, rain, want -- warmth, so it primarily grows in west africa, little did in south america, and in indonesia. >> are the growers very involved in working conditions in africa? >> absolutely. >> you yourself have said people over to monitor those conditions. >> the interesting thing is that our industry does not own any farms particularly in africa but we do buy the bulk of the beans. the interesting thing is that when you plant the tree, it takes five years to produce this.

>> that is very common with a lot of fruit trees. they don't bear fruit for at least five years. >> that's correct, then they will bear fruit year after year after year. then they will do this for 60, 70 years. it is amazing if you see that you get those beans from a bar of chocolate, there is like 20 steps. it takes about 400 of those beans to make a hershey bar. >> wow. almost like flower petals in the perfume industry. >> i'm going to do this. i'm going to put a camera on it. there is the finished product. the camera is not on me, i may consume. there are the beans from whence they came. who's chocolate is this? >> hershey. >> hershey, pa., where everything is brown. the hotel rooms are brown.

>> at the hotel hershey, you can take a bath in chocolate because the cocoa butter is good for your skin. >> i used to do speeches and hershey himself was very aggressive. the bean pot was integrated long before. they did take everything brown. the chocolate color is brown. -- they did paint everything brown. >> the hershey company is still owned by the hershey trust. that trust takes care of a lot of kids through grammar school, high school, college. mr. and mrs. hersh sheikh never had children of their own. the trust continues to this day. -- mr. and mr. hershey never had children of their own. >> is the industry upset with the way that congress cannot do

anything? or are they pretty satisfied? >> i think that they are upset about a number of things. one, that we continue to have this sugar program. secondly, since the bulk of my industry is small business, small business feels that there is too much regulation for them to make the products. there is environmental regulation. a certain amount of reasonable regulation, certainly. everyone agrees with that. our industry would like to see a more business friendly environment. >> what is so onerous for the business on the environmental side? >> well, there is a number of things. you have to be careful with anything coming out of your factory. it is not that they are doing anything to violate the regulation, is that there are so

many that they have to make sure that things are proved. our products are safe, so food safety is certainly an issue. there is a lot of regulation. you have to make sure that everything is fine. we are totally okay with that but it slows everything down. it ends up costing more for our members. >> we will close for a moment for station identification. the audio for this program is broadcast at 9:00 a.m., 3:30, three times on saturday on sirius xm radio. we can also be seen at around the world on the english language station of voice of

america. the program coming to you from washington, d.c. linda gasparello and myself are talking to larry graham, the head of the national confectioners association. we have in front of us an enormous bowl of goodies. larry, this is a happy story you are telling of an industry that is doing quite well that does not seem to have all of the privations. you mentioned that small business is important. what are they complaining about? do they have problems with banks? do they have problems with regulations? what would they like to see? can anybody get into the candy business? can i have llewellyn king super

sweet candy is coming to you? >> we are a seasonal business. there are four major holidays -- halloween, christmas, valentine's, and easter. once we get through easter, there is no major holiday until halloween. many of our company's have to borrow money from the bank to be sure that they can meet their obligations. it has gotten tougher to borrow from the banks even though the banks realize that these are a successful company. that has been tougher for our guys. "you have a lot of talk about operating a small business. -- >> you have a lot of talk about operating a small business. they're not worried about taxes, there were about credit, making

enough money to pay taxes. i would like our listeners to know and for our viewers to see linda's at which is itself a confection. hat, which is itself a confection. >> we have a trade show every year. >> i am not well controlled when food stocks are available. --there are the artists we have seen many of them come into our industry. we had one come, they are called two chicks with chocolate. they started in their kitchen and they are doing pretty well. this is an industry that people can get into.

you don't have to have a massive factory or something like that. >> what about shelf space? if you can get it on the shelf, it used to be that you could sell it. you could not get it on the shelf because others had gone up a shelf space -- bought up the shelf space. this is a problem particularly with soda. how about candy? >> this is a competitive business but this is an impulse product. we are in the candy aisle, we are in the checkout area. we are in all kinds of retail establishments. we are in bookstores, office

buildings, sending, prisons. we are everywhere. one of the largest per capita consumption of candy in the u.s. is in salt lake. >> why is that? >> we think it is because of the mormons and there's not much alcohol there. we're not sure exactly. >> how much can be by some of these artisan makers is sold on the net? that would obviate the need for shelf space. this would create quite an intimate relationship with the people. >> that is a growing area of our industry but this is an impulse product that is more serious. candy consumers would be buying it on the net. in europe, when people go to the store, they have chocolate on their grocery list. in the u.s., this is more of an

impulse. if you look at per-capita consumption of per-capita consumption around the world, we are far from the top. the number one britain? >> it is. >> what you see in europe is more rock candy. it is not wrapped. -- what you see in europe is candy.aw i did not clear this with you but you are the father of a very famous actress. >> yes, lauren graham is my daughter and she is a very famous actress.

>> she is like a cult in itself. >> you told me that you were thinking about going into vietnam where you were as an officer. >> we will do that sometime in the spring. the trip i'm looking at starts in hanoi a and ends up in saigon. i have done other trips but i would like to go back. i've not been in vietnam for 30 plus years. >> to those countries have monopolies on certain things like chocolate? -- do those companies have monopolies? >> there is so much available around the world.

i don't think that they really do. >> do your manufacturers have difficulty with people that worry about packaging? >> we don't have a lot of worries about that. one of the trends has been to have much more of this smaller packaging said that you can have a small bite. it keeps the calories at a reasonable level. this is a definite trend in our industry to see smaller pieces. >> in the last minute of this broadcast -- >> i would like to bring this back to "white house chronicle." i have a quiz game for larry which is what was the favorite candy of ronald reagan? >> of course you know it was jelly belly.

it is california company. they are gore made jelly beans. -- they are gourmet jellybeans. >> it ventures and candy. what should people go eat that they have not eaten? >> there are all kinds of new flavors of there. i think some of these artisan chocolates. you are eating a bar that is 70% koko and all of it comes from trinidad or from venezuela. >> happy holidays. it is candy time and this is the candy man, larry graham. >> thank you.

>> many have spoken out on the need for a clan energy future. we are committed to reducing, offsetting, or displacing more than 15 million metric tons of greenhouse gases annually, helping our customers reduce emissions, and offering more low carbon electricity in the marketplace. we are taking action and we are seeing results. >> "white house chronicle" is produced in collaboration with howard university television. from washington, d.c., this has been "white house chronicle."

this features llewellyn king, linda gasparello, and guests. this program can be seen on pbs stations and cable access channels.