Every man, woman and child in the UK eats an average 40kg of sugar per year: should we really guzzle so much of the sweet stuff?
What kind of damage is it doing to our health and the environment? Who wins and loses from our sweet tooth? And if we cut down, or even quit, who would be hardest hit – big business or small farmers?
These are just some of the issues tackled in the Food Ethics Council’s new publication Sugar: a bitter pill?
We asked experts to assess the environmental, development and social costs of producing, trading and eating sugar. We discovered that sugar’s chequered history has created a love-hate relationship with the white stuff. We blame it for our problems but can’t give it up.
Sugar plays a hefty part in environmental degradation, worker exploitation and the burgeoning crises of obesity and diabetes. But we also found that:
• The environmental toll of sugar production is similar to other agricultural commodities, and some big businesses are cleaning up their act.
• While shocking coerced labour still exists in sugar production, fair trade and EU trade reform are beginning to create better deals for some producers and workers.
• Global sugar consumption is still on the rise, but nutrition standards on advertising in the UK and Europe are set to restrict the promotion of very sugary foods, and product reformulation is slowly chipping away at our intake.
Tom Macmillan, executive director of the Food Ethics Council says:
"How we grow, trade and eat sugar exposes deep inequalities and serious abuses of political and economic power. But blaming sugar misses the point – many other foods, including other sweet ones, are just as fraught with problems. The story of sugar reveals how urgently we need to support human rights and democratic engagement not just in one part of our food supply, but right across the board."
Contributors to our magazine include Professor Sidney Mintz, author of the seminal book on sugar Sweetness and Power, campaigning organisations WWF-UK and the Human Rights Foundation, EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel, independent consultant and writer on obesity Neville Rigby, and Professor of Nutrition Policy at London Metropolitan University Jack Winkler.
