High-Priced Coffee

[Steven Maas (CUTR)]

On Tue, 14 Jan 1997, David Casseres wrote:

> Awright awright awright.  First, what follows is about Hawaiian cane 
> sugar, which is most of what you get in the U.S.

LOTS of sugar is grown here in Florida in the so-called Everglades
Agricultural Area basically between Lake Okeechobee and Everglades Nat'l
Park and west of the coast.  The sugar growers here are heavily subsidized
through minimum prices and limits on imports.  Estimates run about 4 cents
per pound subsidy.  90% is grown by two large multinationals.  The
industry causes extreme damage to the Park and spent a fortune in November
to defeat a penny-per-pound fee that would have gone to mitigate the
damage they've caused. I don't know how much US sugar comes from Hawaii
vs. Florida.

> (If your sugar comes 
> from somewhere else it is almost sure to be produced under the most 
> horrible of neo-colonialist conditions, and soaked so to speak in the 
> blood of the people who harvested it, so don't use that kind, please.  

This certainly applies to Florida sugar, harvested by migrant workers
under exactly those conditions.

	Steve