Sugar is one of the world's most volatile commodities, vulnerable to unstable market prices and changing consumer tastes. Yet in many parts of the developing world it remains an economic mainstay, providing vital employment and foreign exchange. The complex system of trading agreements that has shaped the nature of the industry, however, is now being redrawn by free- market forces.
The Caribbean's history is inseparable from sugar, and the crops is still an important feature in the economies of many islands, from Cuba to Barbados. In Jamaica entire communities depend on the sugar industry, earning a precarious living on anachronistic plantations. As the European Union reassesses the policy which keeps Jamaican sugar alive, time is running out for the island's industry.
King Sugar looks at the world sugar business, identifying the key players - producers, markets and transnational companies - and explaining how the industry works. It explores the economics and production. Based on interviews with traders, buyers and producers, it follows the commodity's progress from canefield to sugar bowl.
MICHELLE HARRISON is a consultant and writer on food policy. She lives in London.
"Of broad comparative and theoretical interest not just to scholars and policy makers interested in the Caribbean, King Sugar rises very important questions concerning how to address issues of globalisation in the countrysides of the developing world in general. It is an important and penetrating work which deserves a wide readership."
Donald Robotham, Professor of Anthropology at The Graduate Center, City University of New York