When the WHO wanted to put together a
Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity, and Health suggesting people cut their sugar intake to 10% of their diets, the US protested, insisting the WHO amend their figure to recommend 25% of one's diet as sugar.
And, ironically, sugar almost derailed CAFTA. Democrats couldn't (or wouldn't) stop it. Republicans were mostly for it. But sugar almost kept both sides from passing it.
What interest does the US have in promoting a sugary diet worldwide? What's in it for us? And what's it have to do with CAFTA? I think it's time to play Follow the Money.
And unlike the administration's reporting on the war, this diary doesn't sugar-coat a thing.
Follow the Money is an easy game to play in this case.
One family, the Fanjuls, control most of the U.S. sugar supply and enjoyed cozy relations with the Reagan, Bush, and Clinton administrations.
Meet the Fanjuls
To understand the power of Florida sugar, it is illustrative to look at the very wealthy, very private members of the Fanjul family of Florida. With an enormous sugar empire that dwarfs even the U.S. Sugar Corporation, the Fanjul family's sugar holdings in Florida and the Dominican Republic total more than 400,000 acres, operated by a family of companies under the corporate umbrella of Flo-Sun, Inc.
Four brothers -- Alfonso "Alfie," José "Pepe," Alexander, and Andres -- are the principal owners and managers of Flo-Sun. The Fanjuls are Cuban-American descendants of the wealthy Gomez-Mena family of Cuba, which controlled much of the American-dominated sugar industry in Cuba until Fidel Castro seized power, and the New York-based Fanjul family. Matriarch Lillian de Fanjul and her four sons make their home in exclusive Palm Beach, Florida, an hour's drive and a world away from the gritty sugar plantations of western Palm Beach County.
Just your all-American family, eh? Absolutely precious that four brothers work together in a family business. Immigrants that came here and made it in our system, where any poor schmuck can pull themselves up by their bootstraps. It's the American dream.
Buying Influence
The article I linked to above gives exact stats on the money injected into American politics by the Fanjuls. Hard money, soft money, money from PACs, personal donations, money to Dems, to Republicans, to representatives, senators, presidents - they just like to spread it around.
Alfie is a devoted Democrat; Jose is a devoted Republican. I can only imagine the fights that erupt at Thanksgiving. No wait, that's my family. For the Fanjuls, I bet the political differences work out just fine. Alfie can buy Democratic influence, Jose can buy Republican influence, and Flo-Sun (and thus all four brothers) benefit.
Sugar and the Environment
To tie into a point Jerome made before (Peak Sugar), the Fanjuls have gotten into the energy business.
The company also grows rice and corn, and this year Flo-Sun began building a $200 million cogeneration power plant that will burn waste products of sugar cane and sell electricity to Florida Power & Light Company.
Much like the oil companies that are destroying the wetlands of Louisiana, Flo-Sun ain't great for the Everglades.
Florida's Everglades once stretched 100 miles from the southern end of Lake Okeechobee down to the tidal estuaries of the Gulf of Mexico and Florida Bay. No longer. Over the past 200 years, Florida has lost nearly half -- 9.3 million acres -- of its wetlands, much of it in the Everglades.
--snip--
In an area just south of Lake Okeechobee is the Everglades Agricultural Area, now home to Florida's sugar industry. In fact, the land area devoted to the Florida sugar industry has nearly doubled since the early 1970s, from 233,000 to 450,000 acres. Not only has the sugar industry further interrupted the flow of water on its way south, but its polluted runoff -- in particular, the vast quantities of phosphorus that are produced by the industry's intensive farming of the area -- has been cited by environmentalists, scientists, and federal and state officials as a primary cause of the degradation of the Everglades.
Of course - sugar can't take all the blame for wetland destruction. Half the population of New Jersey moved to South Florida and that had an effect as well. But let's stick to sugar.
The first article I referenced said that the Fanjuls represent about 12% of the U.S. subsidies to the sugar cane and sugar beet industries. They make a good case study but there are more like them.
The Fanjuls' Flo-Sun group, U.S. Sugar Corporation, and the Florida Sugar Cane League -- including the Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida, based in Belle Glade, which represents smaller growers -- have fought bitterly with environmentalists, the state of Florida, and the federal government over a plan to halt the pollution of the Everglades and to establish a multimillion-dollar project to clean up the water flowing south into Everglades National Park and then into Florida Bay.
These sugar companies are not only worried about the cost of an Everglade cleanup program (hundreds of millions of dollars) but also they are worried about jeopardizing federal sugar subsidies.
When Clinton took office, an epic battle ensued - environmentalists vs. Big Sugar. Remember, Alfie was buddy-buddy with Clinton at this point. Who won? Take a wild guess.
Assessed at roughly $25 per acre per year, on a sliding scale that takes into account environmentally friendly farming practices, the final accord will cost the sugar industry from $230 million to $330 million, spread out over 20 years.
The balance of the cost, estimated at $400 million to $700 million, will be footed by taxpayers, environmentalists say.
Will the Everglades ever be fully restored? Environmentalists doubt it. A 1999 letter to the editor titled "Federal Sugar Subsidy Helps Destroy Everglades" states:
The biggest victim was the Everglades. The annual breeding population
of elegant wood storks dropped from 20,000 in 1960 to 1,800 today.
The endangered Cape Sable seaside sparrow population dwindled from
tens of thousands to 3,500. Biologists say this vanishing bird shows
the declining health of the Everglades.
A 2002 Environmental Law Institute PDF entitled How Protectionism is Destroying the Everglades contains a more in-depth report on the same topic.
As for the sugar industry, to them it was just a settlement. Cost of doing business. All in all, their political donations gave them a terrific ROI.
Nutritional Standards
How does this play into our national and international nutrition standards? The WHO example is above. (Can you even imagine eating 25% of your diet as sugar? Actually, who knows how much of my diet is sugar already. They put it in everything. But just the thought of it sounds disgusting. I think it's time to re-evaluate my diet.) There is also the food pyramid. The article here says that the most glaring effect of big agribusiness on the pyramid is its refusal to tell you what NOT to eat. It says sugars and fats eat sparingly but does not go in depth on it. Big agribusiness doesn't want it to.
So why did sugar almost derail CAFTA? Sugar interests nationwide feared a drop in price supports and a 50% increase in sugar imports.
Sugar Alternatives
There are many sugar alternatives. There are the fake ones (Splenda, Nutrasweet, etc) which I will not touch, and the real ones (honey, molasses, agave nectar, date sugar, maple syrup, brown rice syrup, stevia). If you are watching the glycemic index of your food, you probably stay away from even these sugar substitutes also. But if you have a sweet tooth (and oh do I have a sweet tooth), take a fresh new look at these products.
The sugar most Americans consume is refined until it is entirely devoid of nutrients. However, blackstrap molasses is rich in iron, and maple syrup and unfiltered honey are pretty nutritious too (especially buckwheat honey). Stevia is a sweet plant that is naturally free of calories (and not in a "Splenda" sort of way) but I hear it is expensive and/or hard to get a hold of.
My sweeteners of choice are honey, maple syrup, and molasses. I like molasses for the iron content, and I like honey and maple syrup because I can buy them locally at my farmer's market. I heard that locally produced honey can help people with allergies. I'm not sure if it's true but I still eat the stuff. I make a mean hot cocoa with it.
(Note: honey is not vegan. I've read the reasons why vegans do not eat it, and none of them convinced me, so I still eat it. I've been told that makes me "beegan")
If you use a substitute, take a look at this table from Vegan World Fusion Cuisine:
- Agave Nectar: Replace 1 c. sugar w/ 3/4 c.; Reduce liquids by 1/3
- Barley Malt Syrup: Replace 1 c. sugar w/ 3/4 c.; Reduce liquids by 1/4
- Brown Rice Syrup: Replace 1 c. sugar w/ 1 c.; Reduce liquids by 1/4
- Blackstrap Molasses: Replace 1 c. sugar w/ 1/2 c.; Reduce liquids by 1/4
- Date Sugar: Replace 1 c. sugar w/ 2/3 c.; Reduce liquids by 0
- Fruit Syrup: Replace 1 c. sugar w/ 1 c.; Reduce liquids by 1/4
- Honey: Replace 1 c. sugar w/ 3/4 c.; Reduce liquids by 1/8
- Maple Syrup: Replace 1 c. sugar w/ 3/4 c.; Reduce liquids by 1/8
- Sucanat: Replace 1 c. sugar w/ 1 c.; Reduce liquids by 0
- Stevia (powdered): Replace 1 c. sugar w/ 1 tsp.; Reduce liquids by 0
One last thought - many of our recipes are sweeter than they have to be. Try decreasing the sugar and see how it tastes. You won't miss it. I like to make pumpkin pie, and the standard recipe calls for 3/4 c. sugar. I use 1/3 c. maple syrup and it tastes great.
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Before I jump into a few recipes, I have a question or two for you guys. Someone recommended I talk about fake sugar subsitutes in this diary, but it got pretty long and explored a range of topics before I even got to them, so I skipped it. I'd also like to do a diary on fish (although there was a terrific diary on salmon this week and they kind of stole my stuff....it was a great diary so I'm more than happy to go find new stuff). And someone else gave me some awesome stuff on factory farming.
All are great topics. However, I'd love to lighten it up a bit for a week and have a discussion among us about success strategies for food. With all of the things I've posted about, you might think: what's left to eat? Anyone want to take next week for this? Specifically, I was thinking it would be good to discuss how to accommodate one family member who has a different diet than everyone else (in my family it's one vegan, three carnivores but I can imagine you'd have to deal with the same thing when it's one person on Atkins, one person with allergies, one diabetic, one person with a thyroid disorder, one picky eater, etc).
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Recipes
Since we're talking about reducing or replacing sugar, here are a few dessert recipes I've worked out. I switched the sugar to maple syrup and reduced it a bit - and you could probably even reduce it more. The sorbet tasted extremely sweet with the recipe here so if you used less maple syrup it'd still be great. I'd try the pumpkin pie with this recipe before deciding to reduce the maple syrup further.
Strawberry-Lime Sorbet
I know the berries aren't seasonal right now. Their season here in WI is the first few weeks in June. This is embarrassing, but I used berries I still have in the freezer that I picked last June.
Prep time: 5 min; Total time: 5 min
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp. Cointreau
- 1 tbsp. lime juice
- 1/4 c. lime zest (grated lime peel)
- 1/4 c. maple syrup, Grade B (or less, to taste)
- 1/4 c. water
- 3 c. frozen strawberries
First, grate the lime zest. (Do yourself a favor and use a microplane for this. They are at most $15 and very worth it.)
Once you have enough lime zest, combine all ingredients in a blender and blend. The consistency should be slightly too thick for a smoothie and slightly too runny for a sorbet. If your blender jams up, stop the blender and stir the contents around a bit to loosen them up. You may have to do this a couple times.
Then, freeze your sorbet in a covered container until it's time to eat!
Serves: 4 (with very generous servings)
Vegan Pumpkin Pie
If you want, add about 1/4 c. of almond butter or natural peanut butter (the kind where the only listed ingredient is peanuts). That will thicken this up. Otherwise sometimes it seems a bit too runny for me but I'm not big on the nutty flavor. I suppose a little more arrowroot powder would do the trick just fine.
Also, I've had people ask me how I make the pie crust. They always sound hopeful that I'll have some homemade recipe that tastes gourmet. I hate to disappoint, but I don't like pie crust. So I don't use any. I just eat this stuff with a spoon, like a pudding.
Prep time: 10 min; Total time: 65 min
Ingredients
- 1 pie crust
- 1 15 oz can pumpkin
- 1 tbsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/4 tsp cloves
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/3 c Grade B maple syrup (can reduce to 1/4 c or increase to 1/2 c if you want - the normal recipe calls for 3/4 c sugar)
- 2 tbsp blackstrap molasses
- 12 oz soy milk, rice milk, or almond milk
- 3 tbsp arrowroot powder OR 1/4 c. corn starch
Preheat the oven to 425 F. Press your crust into a pie pan. Mix all ingredients together and pour into the crust. Bake at 425 F for 15 minutes. Reduce the heat to 350 F and bake for 40-50 minutes. Cool on the countertop for 30-60 minutes and then refrigerate. Serve with whipped cream.
Serves 8 (or 6 if you like huge slices)