Big Sugar
So, a friend of mine, in fact the blog's namesake, told me I should watch this documentary Proving once again that Jarrett Sacks is my inspiration for everything. Produced by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, CBC, Big Sugar reveals what most people have never bothered to think about, where their sugar comes from, and the atrocities that put it there. What Big Sugar taught me:
So, the reason Canada was primarily British, and not French is because of sugar. Britain stole two islands from France, two islands which produced assloads of sugar. But Britain didn't want war, and knew they had to give something to France. Britain either had to give Canada back, or the two islands, Guadaloupe and Martinique. Guadaloupe alone produced 43 times the amount of revenue as Canada, France didn't even want Canada back. Nobody wanted to go there. The big sugar farmers bribed the hell out of the members of parliament. Giving them money, booze, getting them hookers, giving them precious lines of sugar to snort and mix with their tea, the usual sort of thing. The big sugar farmers wanted to keep Canada to stifle their sugar competition of those islands. Britain kept Canada so that British companies wouldn't have to compete with more potential British companies. Canada is basically British because Britain liked sugar. France was pretty damn happy about it, they needed that sugar..... to stifle the commoners, I suppose. Damn riotous Frenchies.
Sugar costs a lot more in the US than other places, apparently large Florida sugar farms have shut the door down to the sugar from other countries.
Sugar, despite the fact that it has no nutritional value, is subsidized up the wazoo.
Sugar companies are destroying the Everglades. Ask Al Gore.
A Florida representative wrote a bill to cut subsidies to sugar companies, and he had the votes to do it...until five cosponsors changed their votes. The bill lost by five votes. Cosponsors! I wish I was important enough to be bribed.
A sugar baron managed to call Bill Clinton while he was "being visited" by Monica Lewinsky, to complain about a potential tax on sugar. Lewinsky remembers the call. The tax wasn't passed, and in fact more subsidies were passed. That's power.
There are sugar plantations in the Dominican Republic alone that are larger than some countries, including Andorra, not that Andorra is large, but still, sugar plantations that are 400 square miles, that's huge.
Some workers on sugar plantation aren't allowed to leave the plantations, they're basically slaves. Scratch the "basically." They are. They get up, don't eat, go to work for at least 12 hours, then goes home, on the plantation, and eat dinner. If the children get hungry, they go out and steal some of the sugar cane, just to hold themselves over. Each man is expected to cut a ton of sugar cane a day. 2,000 pounds a day. They get about two dollars a day. They're even forbidden to plant their own gardens.
The Church of England ran a sugar plantation, even branding their slaves with the word "Society."
That was all part one, part two didn't really teach me anything. Part two is mainly about the affects sugar has on health. Sugar makes you fat, I knew that, I'm fat. I know how I got here.
I did gain one thing from part 2. The US threatened to withdraw 300 million dollars worth of funding to the World Health Organization if they published a report saying that sugar most likely leads to obesity, etc. The WHO didn't publish any of the sugar aspects of their report.
I suggest you see this, it's a very interesting documentary. I'm sure it has it's issues, most documentaries do, but very much worth watching. It's available on google video, too. Huzzah Google. Part 1. Part 2.
As usual, comments greatly appreciated.
So, the reason Canada was primarily British, and not French is because of sugar. Britain stole two islands from France, two islands which produced assloads of sugar. But Britain didn't want war, and knew they had to give something to France. Britain either had to give Canada back, or the two islands, Guadaloupe and Martinique. Guadaloupe alone produced 43 times the amount of revenue as Canada, France didn't even want Canada back. Nobody wanted to go there. The big sugar farmers bribed the hell out of the members of parliament. Giving them money, booze, getting them hookers, giving them precious lines of sugar to snort and mix with their tea, the usual sort of thing. The big sugar farmers wanted to keep Canada to stifle their sugar competition of those islands. Britain kept Canada so that British companies wouldn't have to compete with more potential British companies. Canada is basically British because Britain liked sugar. France was pretty damn happy about it, they needed that sugar..... to stifle the commoners, I suppose. Damn riotous Frenchies.
Sugar costs a lot more in the US than other places, apparently large Florida sugar farms have shut the door down to the sugar from other countries.
Sugar, despite the fact that it has no nutritional value, is subsidized up the wazoo.
Sugar companies are destroying the Everglades. Ask Al Gore.
A Florida representative wrote a bill to cut subsidies to sugar companies, and he had the votes to do it...until five cosponsors changed their votes. The bill lost by five votes. Cosponsors! I wish I was important enough to be bribed.
A sugar baron managed to call Bill Clinton while he was "being visited" by Monica Lewinsky, to complain about a potential tax on sugar. Lewinsky remembers the call. The tax wasn't passed, and in fact more subsidies were passed. That's power.
There are sugar plantations in the Dominican Republic alone that are larger than some countries, including Andorra, not that Andorra is large, but still, sugar plantations that are 400 square miles, that's huge.
Some workers on sugar plantation aren't allowed to leave the plantations, they're basically slaves. Scratch the "basically." They are. They get up, don't eat, go to work for at least 12 hours, then goes home, on the plantation, and eat dinner. If the children get hungry, they go out and steal some of the sugar cane, just to hold themselves over. Each man is expected to cut a ton of sugar cane a day. 2,000 pounds a day. They get about two dollars a day. They're even forbidden to plant their own gardens.
The Church of England ran a sugar plantation, even branding their slaves with the word "Society."
That was all part one, part two didn't really teach me anything. Part two is mainly about the affects sugar has on health. Sugar makes you fat, I knew that, I'm fat. I know how I got here.
I did gain one thing from part 2. The US threatened to withdraw 300 million dollars worth of funding to the World Health Organization if they published a report saying that sugar most likely leads to obesity, etc. The WHO didn't publish any of the sugar aspects of their report.
I suggest you see this, it's a very interesting documentary. I'm sure it has it's issues, most documentaries do, but very much worth watching. It's available on google video, too. Huzzah Google. Part 1. Part 2.
As usual, comments greatly appreciated.
posted by Sam at 3:45 PM
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