Sugar imports into the US are strictly controlled. I used to work for a
customs broker on the northern border years ago. Signing off on a shipment
of sugar without pre-approval was a firing offense.

As a result, sugar prices are roughly double of what a truly free market
would support. Within the last month a LifeSavers plant in Michigan was
closed down so that its operations could be moved to Canada. The ONLY
reason given was the price of sugar: in Canada the same yearly supply of
sugar cost $10 million less.

But don't kid yourself -- the political pull of the sugar barons(basically
a family in Florida) is considerable but pales in comparison to that of
Archer Daniels. The country's primary purveyor of corn syrup benefits from
the sugar monopoly far more than the sugar barons do. High sugar prices
force many food manufacturers to seek out corn syrup as a cheap alternative.

My favorite victim of this phenomenon has been the jellies & jams at your
supermarket. Back in the 70's these were all made with actual sugar. But
most jellies are commodity products, where price pressures eventually
forced manufacturers to replace sugar with corn syrup. From a practical
standpoint, this change had two effects: taste & sandwich construction.

I don't consume jellies or jams anymore, except *maybe* around Xmas. But I
ended my consumption of these long before I went paleo -- they simply don't
taste as good as they used too. You should really notice this difference if
you ever partake of any specialty jams & jellies still made with real
sugar(especially cane sugar).

Try making a pbj sandwich with regular, mass market jelly. Notice how
easily the jelly spills out of the bread when actually picking up the
sandwich. Do the same with a jelly made with cane sugar -- spillage is much
less. Come to think of it, this bothered me more than the degradation of
taste. I stopped consuming pbj's(and jelly in general) more than 15 years
ago as a political protest against both the monopoly(peanut too, not just
sugar) and messy sandwiches.

Ok, that sounds kinda goofy. But there it is.

Dave Fobare


>The sugar industry is threatening to lobby Congress to cut off WHO's funding
>unless they withdraw their report. Not surprisingly, the sugar industry is a
>major player in U.S. politics--the sugar industry gave more than $3 million
>in donations in the 2002 federal elections.