The Shape of Things to Come: Like Oil, Goes Sugar
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 02.10.06
The Wall Street Journal notes that sugar, the eternal subsidy crop in the States, is no longer a food crop but is now an energy crop, and that the futures prices have gone through the roof as investors anticipate its use as a source for ethanol. It may be better for our teeth but Brazil now diverts 52% of its sugar crop to ethanol, and other parts of the world will follow. Expect more land to be cleared for it; expect more subsidies for sugar beets and other crops; expect very expensive Hershey bars, as we turn our continent into one big subsidized energy farm.
UPDATE: read story picked up by ::Post-Gazette
Read Treehugger on palm oil and orangutans , clearing the rainforest and loss of biodiversity
Perhaps our nation's overall health will improve as we eat less sugar due to its expense.
The WSJ with its reliable glass-half-empty look at oil atlernatives.
Actually we eat mostly corn syrup; just look at most ingredients.
By law (last I heard) sugar is required to be priced at least twice whatever corn syrup is...I could be wrong, but that is what I heard.