{"id":6947,"date":"2017-04-20T06:07:56","date_gmt":"2017-04-20T06:07:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/?p=6947"},"modified":"2017-04-20T06:07:56","modified_gmt":"2017-04-20T06:07:56","slug":"keeping-sugar-producers-sweet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/2017\/04\/20\/keeping-sugar-producers-sweet\/","title":{"rendered":"Keeping sugar producers sweet"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Economist has a lengthy article<\/a> on the economics of sugar production \u2013 as controlled by the EU's complex set of regulations and rules. \u00a0It's worth a read for an insight into how complicated the production of a simple product (with a terrible history) is. \u00a0Both cane producers and beet producers seem unhappy, and both are looking to Brexit to make life better for them. \u00a0Their ideal outcome, of course, is for consumers to eat more of the poisonous stuff \u2013 a result that will mean\u00a0more NHS resources being spooned\u00a0into combatting its effects. \u00a0The article ends:<\/p>\n

\"The EU\u2019s cane refiners\u2014which, according to the European Commission, are based in nine member states\u2014will find their margins squeezed as white-sugar prices fall but imported raw-sugar costs stay high. Tate & Lyle Sugars ran a \u20ac25m loss in the year to September 2015, for which it blames import restrictions. This is why the company came out in favour of a British departure from the EU: Mr Mason views Brexit as a \u201cgolden opportunity\u201d to establish rules that treat cane and beet as equals in the British market. Beet producers have a different notion of fairness: for them, a level playing-field is one that takes into account the state support other producers receive. Precisely how the British government will keep both sides sweet is anyone\u2019s guess.\"<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There is a chapter on Sugar in the late Henry Hobhouse's magisterial Seeds of Change:\u00a0The 6 plants that transformed mankind<\/em>. \u00a0Read it for the detail of how much human misery has been\u00a0bound up with the white stuff over many years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Economist has a lengthy article on the economics of sugar production \u2013 as controlled by the EU's complex set of regulations and rules. \u00a0It's worth a read for an insight into how complicated the production of a simple product...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment","category-news-and-updates"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6947\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}