The Price of Sugar

Last night I saw a film called "The Price of Sugar". I have to say that I was disappointed with it. I was hoping for something that would touch on the social, environmental, and health "price" of sugar. Something that would really motivate me to desert sugar. Instead, this film focussed solely on the social cost of sugar cane harvesting in the Dominican Republic. That's very specific.

So specific, in fact, that up here in the Canadian boonies we have no direct impact on sugar production in the Dominican Republic. It is just those crazy Americans who buy sugar from the Dominican Republic. In Western Canada, Rogers Sugar refines 90% of our sugar desires. Rogers has two plants: Vancouver and Taber. Here in Alberta, the Taber plant uses sugar beets as the source of raw sugar 50% of the year. The rest of the time they import raw sugar from asia as Vancouver does. Wow, that's 50% locally produced! Of course, the film doesn't tell you any of this. My source: www.rogerssugar.com .

The film focussed in on one man: Christopher Hartley. He is working hard to improve conditions for sugar cane harvesters in the Dominican Republic. In fact, this priest came from a very priviledged family and is devoting his life to this cause. For me, this is the main source of motivation in this film. If one man is willing to devote his life, surely the rest of us can take some small action for a more sustainable way of life.

With regard to sugar, that action is simple: reduce sugar consumption. The main impact of this will be health, with some impact on the environment that is difficult to quantify. I would be interested to find out more about the production of raw sugar in the countries we do import it from. What is the environmental impact of creating great fields of sugar cane or sugar beets?

If you do want to see the film, Movies That Matter is doing an encore presentation on Thursday, January 24th at 7:00 PM in Murray Fraser Hall Room 160 on the U of C campus.