Sugar E-Book

Ben Richardson

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Serie: PRS - Polity Resources series
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 335

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Beschreibung

There is more sugar in the world's diet than ever before, but life is far from sweet for the exploited producers making nature's 'white gold' and the unhealthy consumers eating it. Why has the billion-dollar sugar trade created such inequities? In this insightful analysis, Ben Richardson argues that the most compelling answers to this question can be found in the dynamics of global capitalism. Led by multinational companies, the mass consumption of sweetened snacks has taken hold in the Global South and underpinned a new wave of foreign investment in sugar production. The expansion of large-scale and highly-industrialised farms across Latin America, Asia and Africa has kept the price of sugar down whilst pushing workers out of jobs and rural dwellers off the land. However, challenges to these practices are gathering momentum. Health advocates warning against costly diseases like diabetes, trade unions fighting for better pay, and local residents campaigning for a cleaner environment are all re-shaping the way sugar is consumed and produced. But to truly transform sugar, Richardson contends, these political activities must also address the profit-driven nature of food and farming itself.

Leseprobe

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Acknowledgements

1. Introduction

The global politics of sugar: the limits of existing approaches

The approach and argument

Historicizing sugar and rethinking politics

Notes

2. Growing Markets, Growing Waistlines

Making markets for sugar

Unpacking the nutrition transition

Governing consumption

Conclusion

Notes

3. Terminal Trade Dependency

Trade policy and the terms of competition

Sugar highs and sugar lows

Governing international trade

Conclusion

Notes

4. Exploiting and Expelling Labour

Factories in the field

Modernization and mass redundancy

Governing labour

Conclusion

Notes

5. Expanding and Exhausting Land

The global land grab

Industrial agriculture and green growth

Governing land

Conclusion

Notes

6. A Sweeter Deal for All?

Healthy eating

Fair exchange

Empowered working

Diverse land

Conclusion

Notes

Selected Readings

Index

Guide

Cover

Table of Contents

Begin Reading

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Resources Series

Gavin Bridge & Philippe Le Billon, Oil

Jennifer Clapp, Food

Peter Dauvergne & Jane Lister, Timber

Elizabeth R. DeSombre & J. Samuel Barkin, Fish

David Lewis Feldman, Water

Gavin Fridell, Coffee

Derek Hall, Land

Michael Nest, Coltan

Ian Smillie, Diamonds

Sugar

BEN RICHARDSON

polity

Copyright © Ben Richardson 2015

The right of Ben Richardson to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

First published in 2015 by Polity Press

Polity Press65 Bridge StreetCambridge CB2 1UR, UK

Polity Press350 Main StreetMalden, MA 02148, USA

All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-0153-3

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Richardson, Ben, 1982-Sugar / Ben Richardson.pages cmIncludes bibliographical references and index.ISBN 978-0-7456-8014-9 (hardback : alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-0-7456-8015-6(pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Sugar trade. I. Title.HD9100.5.R527 2015382’.456641--dc23

2015009365

The publisher has used its best endeavours to ensure that the URLs for external websites referred to in this book are correct and active at the time of going to press. However, the publisher has no responsibility for the websites and can make no guarantee that a site will remain live or that the content is or will remain appropriate.

Every effort has been made to trace all copyright holders, but if any have been inadvertently overlooked the publisher will be pleased to include any necessary credits in any subsequent reprint or edition.

For further information on Polity, visit our website:politybooks.com

Acknowledgements

My obsession with sugar started in 2005 when I began my PhD on the political economy of the international sugar trade. This was generously funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council, as was the following post-doctoral research on the investment strategies of transnational sugar companies. One post-doc wasn’t enough, so I applied for another to look at how the livelihoods of the rural poor were being affected by the sugar industry and assess how these people might be better protected. This research was funded by the Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship scheme.

All in all, I have been fortunate enough to conduct interviews in Belgium, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, India, Swaziland, Switzerland, Trinidad, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, and Zambia. Sugar is truly a global commodity. I am incredibly grateful to all these interviewees and to the research councils for funding me.

This book brings together the research I have conducted during the last ten years and in so doing benefits from the co-authors I have worked with along the way. The list has become long: Tony Heron, James Brassett, William Smith, Pamela Richardson-Ngwenya, Elizabeth Fortin, João Nunes, Ben McKay, Sérgio Sauer, Roman Herre, Liam Campling, James Harrison, Adrian Smith and Natasha Schwarzbach. Natasha and the rest of the Bonsucro Secretariat, along with Olivier Genevieve of Ethical Sugar, have also been extremely helpful in providing me with contacts, advice and encouragement as I have gone about my research.

I have also been tremendously lucky to work in the Department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Warwick, which has been a vibrant source of ideas and support. Special mention goes to my mentor Matthew Watson, to the members of the International Political Economy research cluster, and to Tim Sinclair, Ben Clift and Sarah Wallace for commenting on draft chapters.

On this note, I want to pay sincere thanks to the two anonymous reviewers who read the whole manuscript and made really detailed and helpful suggestions. I think the book is much improved because of them. Likewise, a big thank you goes to Louise Knight and Pascal Porcheron at Polity for giving me the chance to write the book and then steering me through to completion.

Last but not least is my loving wife Katy. She has been there for me throughout this period and made my life so much sweeter. I would like to dedicate this book to her.

CHAPTER ONEIntroduction

The global food system has produced a paradox: the world population is simultaneously stuffed and starved. Figures from 2013 show that two billion people are deficient in micronutrients, 868 million have inadequate calorie intake, and 500 million are exposed to diet-related disease because of excessive weight gain.1 Yet although these manifestations of malnutrition might be embodied in different ways, they are increasingly symptomatic of the same experiences of poverty and discrimination. It is these underlying social inequalities that account for the maldistribution of food and which are perpetuated by the very way in which the food system functions.2 This is no accident, of course. For all the harm it has caused, the paradox of food has been good for profits.

A study of sugar has much to tell us about this situation. On the one hand, the way sugar production is organized has denied millions of people the means to buy or grow enough food to feed themselves. The reasons for their poverty differ. Workers have been exploited through low wages or made redundant by mechanization, farmers have been indebted or marginalized in favour of large landowners, and rural dwellers have lost livelihood opportunities or been squeezed off their land. Yet the end result has been the same. Vulnerable people have not received a fair share of the wealth produced by the sugar industry, and, in some cases, have actually been harmed by its more rapacious practices. On the other hand, many of the so-called junk foods that constitute poor-quality diets contain added sugar and other sweeteners. By changing the taste of products and engaging in extensive marketing campaigns, food manufacturers and retailers have been able to transform dietary habits, reorganizing patterns of consumption on a global scale. Average sugar intake more than quadrupled during the twentieth century, with levels of obesity and diabetes following close behind.3

This book seeks to explain these dynamics and explore their injustices. It does so largely with respect to the sweetener made from sugar cane and sugar beet, namely sucrose. While other sweeteners such as high fructose corn syrup can be commonly found in foods and drinks, sucrose remains by far the world’s most popular added sugar. Focusing on cane/beet sugar rather than the entire gamut of dietary sugars is helpful for a number of reasons. Sucrose, especially in its ‘pure’ isolated form as refined sugar, is understood as being qualitatively different from other sugars, such as lactose sugar present in milk. For this reason, when thinking about its effects on health, it is useful to distinguish it from other sources of sweetness.