Thread by @Tom_Clarke

There are 2 huge non-Covid news events at the moment. Slavery & Food.
The outpouring of angst and protest over structural racism #BLM, and the prospect of striking trade free trade deals which lower food standards.
The link is Sugar. Silver Spoons & Golden Syrup: a thread 👇/1

The British Empire was built on tobacco, sugar and cotton. Tropical crops that were popular & couldn't (then) be homegrown.
Working on plantations was punishingly hot, hard and dangerous and quickly became the work of indentured, then slave, labour /2

Sugarcane plantations were perhaps the worst of these. And countless millions of African slaves suffered and died being transported or in the process of harvesting, pressing and boiling cane, or being punished for disobedience or low productivity. /3

Britain's first recorded consumer boycott was launched around the start of the 19th century by the catchily-named Anti-Saccharites who campaigned against cane sugar because of the unethical and cruel use of slave labour. Some grocers reported sales falling by half. /4

During slavery, sugar from British colonies had lower tariffs than other producers, protecting British slave-owners from foreign competition.
Britain's blockade of Napoleon in early 1800s fostered a new sugar industry from sugar beet. By 1880 beet supplied 50% of world sugar /5

But Britain continued to get its sugar from the Carribbean and South America. Cuba & Brasil remained slave states, and British Guiana & Trinidad used a system of indentured labour.
British-owned sugarcane plantations & labour practices fed the Caribbean's poverty & dependency./6

Then the First World War cut us off from imported cane sugar, production diminished, and Britain finally started up its own Sugar Beet industry. In 1926 a Sugar Factory opened a stone's throw from our family farm near Ely - we've been growing it ever since. /7

But the UK was attached to it's Empire and sugarcane kept the colonies ticking over, so homegrown beet sugar only got to supply about half the UK market. In 1972 we joined the EC and new laws capped homegrown sugar production at 1m tons, guaranteeing market access to imports /8

Brands like Tate & Lyle cashed in on the 'romantic' allure of cane sugar. And of course buccaneering colonial nostalgia appeals to a certain strand of the British Establishment. /9

More widely, a 2017 poll said 60% of Brits didn't know we grew sugar in this country.
Despite Silver Spoon sugar being the best selling brand since 1978.
Homegrown sugar is sustainable, ethical and efficient - we can now grow more sugar per acre in Norfolk than in Brasil. /10

Tate & Lyle actively campaigned for Brexit.
Why? They want tariffs dropped so they can sell us more cane sugar.
That's fine, right? Well no. We already have no tariffs on 'fair trade' cane sugar from poor nations. T&L cut their supplies from these countries 10 years ago. /11

What's wrong with cane plantations now slavery is long since abolished?

Firstly, there remain some appalling labour practices & in some regimes large cane mills exploit small cane farmers and keep them in penury.
Migrant workers abound & wages are low /12
ipsnews.net/2014/04/face-s…

Environmentally too, cane plantations have caused much harm.
e.g. Habitat loss, soil erosion, pesticides and food miles. /13

news.mongabay.com/2019/11/sugarc…

https://twitter.com/StaLuziaEsteio/status/1050206013536776192?s=19

So, a few days ago, the Govt announced it's tariff policy for Jan 1st. The ONLY agricultural allocation of tariff free quota in the whole schedule is for... cane sugar. "A straightforward subsidy to Tate & Lyle" says Chair of the ACP/LDC sugar group /14
bit.ly/30KbRcJ

With all the talk of chlorinated Chicken, hormone beef and US trade deals, why would a Conservative Government choose to boost imported raw cane sugar above all else for Tate & Lyle - now owned by an American parent company called ASR which also owns?/15

bit.ly/3e5ByZ6

So there we have it.
Sugar was always going to be a litmus test for this government. 'Taking back control' & flying the 🇬🇧 vs. 'free trade' & cheap food at any cost. That cost is lower environmental standards, legacies of slavery & echoes of empire. bit.ly/2AnGZE8

P.S.

farminguk.com/news/-disgrace…