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WORK TITLE: Sugar
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https://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/pais/people/richardson/
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Male.
EDUCATION:University of Sheffield (England), Ph.D., 2008.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer and educator. University of Warwick, England, associate professor. Also, U.K. representative for Ethical Sugar.
AWARDS:Grants and fellowships from organizations, including the Economic and Social Research Council, University of Warwick Brazil Partnership Fund, Leverhulme Foundation, University of Sheffield, and the University of Warwick and Queen Mary University of London Partnership Fund.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Ben Richardson is a writer and educator. In 2008, he received a Ph.D. from the University of Sheffield, in England. Richardson joined the University of Warwick and holds the position of associate professor. He is also affiliated with a nonprofit organization called Ethical Sugar, for which he serves as the U.K. representative. Richardson has received grants and fellowships from organizations, including the Economic and Social Research Council, University of Warwick Brazil Partnership Fund, Leverhulme Foundation, University of Sheffield, and the University of Warwick and Queen Mary University of London Partnership Fund. In 2009, he released his first book, Sugar: Refined Power in a Global Regime.
Richardson released another book on the same subject in 2015. It is simply called Sugar. In this volume, he offers information on various aspects of the sugar industry. Richardson notes that sugar producers employ lobbyists to persuade government leaders to make decisions that would benefit the sugar industry. He explains that the sugar lobby has recently come into conflict with advocates for health and wellness. Lately, sugar has been demonized by dietary and health specialists. Various replacements for sure, such as Splenda and Equal, remain popular substitutes for sugar. Richardson comments on new laws meant to curb the consumption of sugar. In Mexico, legislators have enacted taxes on beverages and foods that contain large amounts of sugar. The government has used the tax revenues to support efforts to provide clean drinking water in schools. In the United States, then mayor Michael Bloomberg put forth legislation that would outlaw large-sized sodas. Richardson discusses the effects of such laws and campaigns on soda companies, such as Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola has considered how to maintain profits while being mindful of its role in the obesity epidemic. Richardson also profiles innovators in the sugar industry, including a Scottish organization called Equal Exchange.
Critics offered favorable assessments of Sugar. S.J. Gabriel, contributor to Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, suggested: “The volume is clearly written, well documented, and logically focused on the philosophical-economic struggle between profit maximization and social responsibility.” Writing on the Resurgence & Ecologist Web site, Joanna Blythman commented: “There is something refreshingly subversive about Richardson’s book because it isn’t anti-sugar as such, but rather against the system that makes this commodity such a bewitching, biddable muse for corporations. He reports on legitimate critiques of sugar from a range of perspectives (human health, environmental impact, labour relations, and more), but then takes the debate further.” Blythman added: “Do we really need another book on sugar? In this instance, the answer is an emphatic yes.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, April, 2016, S.J. Gabriel, review of Sugar, p. 1209.
ONLINE
Resurgence & Ecologist Online, http://www.resurgence.org/ (March-April, 2016), Joanna Blythman, review of Sugar.
University of Warwick Web site, https://www2.warwick.ac.uk/ (March 22, 2017), author faculty profile.
Ben Richardson
I am an Associate Professor in International Political Economy. Prior to joining the University of Warwick, I studied at the University of Sheffield where I received my PhD in 2008.
Research interests
Political economy of food and agriculture
International trade and labour standards
Theories of global governance
Development in southern Africa and the Caribbean
The main focus of my research has been the international political economy of sugar. My first book Sugar: Refined Power in a Global Regime emerged out of my doctoral research and was shortlisted for the BISA International Political Economy Group book of the year. It concerned the governance of the international sugar trade and made two key arguments. First, the privileged economic position of the sugar industry had relied on more than just financial ties to politicians; sugar farmers and processors have also used agrarian discourse and strategies of self-organisation to insulate themselves from trade reform (dubbed ‘refined power’). But, second, new international trade agreements have pitted the sugar industry against more powerful fractions of capital, thereby leading to liberalisation and fragmenting the sugar industry as larger businesses began to invest abroad and trans-nationalise ownership (hence the shift to a global regime).
My next book, Sugar, broadened my investigation of the circulation of the sugar commodity to include its production and consumption. Situated in a eco-Marxist framework, it argued that multinational companies have advanced the mass consumption of sweetened snacks in the Global South and underpinned a new wave of foreign investment in sugar production. The expansion of large-scale and highly-industrialised farms across Latin America, Asia and Africa has kept the price of sugar down whilst pushing workers out of jobs and rural dwellers off the land. However, it also identified counter-movements to these practices. Health advocates warning against costly diseases like diabetes, trade unions fighting for better pay, and local residents campaigning for a cleaner environment have all re-shaped the way sugar is consumed and produced; typically by challenging the profit-driven nature of food and farming itself. Here is my overview of the book's approach.
In September 2015 I began work on a two-year collaborative ESRC Standard Grant called Working Beyond the Border? EU Trade Agreements and International Labour Standards. Existing research on the trade-labour nexus has overlooked how legal provisions in trade treaties are implemented in developing countries once those agreements are signed into effect. Moreover, there are no qualitative studies as yet of the EU’s recent switch to using ‘soft law’ promotional tools rather than ‘hard law’ sanctions to uphold labour standards. Finally, there has been limited theoretical investigation into the relationship between ‘public’ labour standards contained in treaties and overseen by national governments and ‘private’ labour standards set by transnational corporations and written into their contracts with suppliers. The project will involve fieldwork in countries which have signed a recent Free Trade Agreement with the EU, namely Moldova, South Korea and Guyana, and will trace the effects of the agreements in their respective export-oriented commodity chains of clothing, cars and sugar. The International Labour Organization, the European Trade Union Institute, and the European Centre for Development Policy Management are all as integrated project partners.
Teaching and supervision
I am Module Director for the undergraduate module Politics of International Development and the MA module The Global Food System. I am also part of the teaching team for the interdisciplinary module Challenges of Climate Change.
I have supervised the completion of Marika Mura's thesis on 'The Discontented Farmer: State-Society Relations and Food Security in Rural Tanzania' and am currently supervising the PhD candidates below. Please get in touch if you are interested in working together on a thesis topic that overlaps with my interests.
The Political Economy of Commodity Regions: Soybean in South America (Maria Giraudo)
A Critical Assessment of the BasicNeeds Model for Mental Health and Development (Nathan Harris)
Recasting Rights in the Caribbean: The Formation of a Regional Fisheries Policy (Lisa Soares)
Electronic Cashless Welfare Transfers in Australia and South Africa (Luke Bantock)
Externalisation of the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (Laura Gelhaus)
Research impact
I act as UK representative for Ethical Sugar, a non-governmental organisation which campaigns for better social and environmental standards in the sugar industry. In this voluntary role I have written discussion papers on the relationship between sugar cane and development (see publications) and participated the multi-stakeholder roundtable Bonsucro. In 2012, I was chosen to be part of the committee that would advise on revisions to the production standard against which Bonsucro certifies sugarcane producers as sustainable.
Through my research I have also made contributions to public reports concerning the sugar industry. These include the Nuffield Council on Bioethics' report on biofuels and the Harvard Kennedy School's Collaborating for Change in Sugar Production. In addition, I have provided information to the policy departments of international development organisations including ActionAid, Oxfam, Traidcraft and the Fairtrade Foundation, as well as to Coca-Cola’s expert convening on land rights in its sugar supply-chain. I have also participated in a public art event for the Delfina Foundation's Politics of Food series. Finally, my work has been cited in media reports, including:
Connor, L. 'The real cost of Thailand scrapping its sugar subsidy program', Southeast Asia Globe, 23 February 2017
Griffiths, M. 'Uncertain Times for the UK Sugar Industry', Raconteur, 13 October 2016.
'Reform subsidies to sugar beet producers and support small scale farming' says report looking at ways to combat sugar problem, Farming UK, 11 February 2016
Thomas, J. ‘Synthetic Biology: Ecover Must Come Clean’, The Ecologist, 16 July 2014
Dharssi, A. ‘Sugar’s Sticky Trail: Coke and Pepsi Work to Clean Up Their Supply Chains’, Thomson Reuters Foundation, 21 May 2014
Pastor, B. ‘Can Fairtrade Sweeten the Lives of Africa’s Sugarcane Producers?’, AllAfrica, 14 March 2013
Tran, M. ‘EU Sugar Aid for Swaziland Leaves a Bitter Taste’, The Guardian, 19 July 2012
Kuyk, D. ‘Corporate Candyland’, GRAIN: Seedling, 28 April 2009.
Research grants
Source
Project title
Amount
Duration (months)
Start date
Co-applicants
ESRC Standard Grant
Working Beyond the Border: EU Trade Agreements and International Labour Standards
£401,000
36
2015
James Harrison (Warwick) and Liam Campling and Adrian Smith (Queen Mary University of London)
University of Warwick ESRC Impact Acceleration Award
Sustainable Sugar and Global Standards: The Workers’ Perspective
£1,250
2
2015
Olivier Genevieve (Ethical Sugar)
University of Warwick and Queen Mary University of London Partnership Fund
Externalisation of EU Economic Governance
£8,000
12
2012
James Harrison (Warwick) and Liam Campling and Adrian Smith (Queen Mary University of London)
University of Warwick Brazil Partnership Fund
Brazilian Discourse on Food Security
£8,000
24
2012
João Nunes (Warwick)
Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship
Social Justice in the Sugar Cane Industry
£50,000
24
2010
ESRC Post-Doctoral Fellowship
Global Political Economy of Sugar
£74,000
12
2009
University of Sheffield Departmental PhD Award
Politics of the International Sugar Trade
£40,000
36
2005
richardson profile
Associate Professor
b.j.richardson@warwick.ac.uk 024765 24462 Room E1.17 Social Sciences
Advice and feedback hours Wed 11.30-12.30 and Fri 9-10
QUOTED: "The volume is clearly written, well documented, and logically focused on the philosophical-economic struggle between profit maximization and social responsibility."
Richardson, Ben. Sugar
S.J. Gabriel
CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries. 53.8 (Apr. 2016): p1209.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 American Library Association CHOICE
http://www.ala.org/acrl/choice/about
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Richardson, Ben. Sugar. Polity, 2015. 244p bibl index afp ISBN 9780745680149 cloth, $64.95; ISBN 9780745680149 pbk, $19.95; ISBN 9781509501533 ebook, $9.99
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Richardson (international political economy, Univ. of Warwick, UK) explores the politics, culture, and economics of the sugar industry. He examines numerous political struggles between the sugar lobby and health advocates, and between the sugar industry and other elements in society, including sugar workers and non-sugar farmers. He also demonstrates the various ways in which the sugar industry has traditionally secured the support and protection of governments, and he contrasts this to localized efforts to restrain the growth in sugar consumption and related obesity. Richardson takes as an example the effort of former New York City mayor Mayor Bloomberg to control the size of sugary drinks, an effort thwarted by the US Court of Appeals. The book also examines the Mexican government's success in legislating and implementing new taxes on sugary drinks and junk food, earmarking these revenues for building the infrastructure to make potable water available to all school children. Corporations have taken note of the negative effects of these campaigns on their cash flow: Richardson notes that Coca-Cola "listed obesity concerns as the number-one risk factor affecting their business." The volume is clearly written, well documented, and logically focused on the philosophical-economic struggle between profit maximization and social responsibility. Summing Up: *** Highly recommended. All readers.--S. J. Gabriel, Mount Holyoke College
Gabriel, S.J.
QUOTED: "There is something refreshingly subversive about Richardson’s book because it isn’t anti-sugar as such, but rather against the system that makes this commodity such a bewitching, biddable muse for corporations. He reports on legitimate critiques of sugar from a range of perspectives (human health, environmental impact, labour relations, and more), but then takes the debate further."
"Do we really need another book on sugar? In this instance, the answer is an emphatic yes."
THE SWEET TASTE OF EXCESS
Issue 295
March/April 2016
Walking Back to Happiness
Reviews
The Sweet Taste of Excess
by Joanna Blythman
issue cover 295
Cover: Sarah Boden, hill farmer, Isle of Eigg www.sopiegerrard.com
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Joanna Blythman welcomes a fresh approach to tackling the sugar monster. Sugar by Ben Richardson. Polity Press, 2015. ISBN: 9780745680156
Sugar only recently replaced saturated fat as the dietary demon, and for the time being the public discourse around it remains pretty binary. Either it is pure nutritional evil, and so should be reduced or replaced (the campaigners’ line), or it is merely a convenient punch bag for citizens’ inability to make savvy choices about the composition of their diet (the food industry line). Either way, this dialogue isn’t going anywhere fast.
Ben Richardson is an authority on sugar, and his latest book on it, written from an “eco-Marxist” perspective, takes our thinking down fresh and ultimately more productive paths. Face it: sugar is here to stay, so how can we democratise its production and consumption?
Richardson’s vision of a qualitatively different sugar economy is intriguing. He explores the economist – and early Resurgence supporter – E.F. Schumacher’s notion of appropriate technology and the idea that small-scale, more artisan methods that effectively limit production and processing are preferable, and much more equitable, than profit-driven mechanisation, dubbed “factories in fields”, even if this is carried out in the name of improving workers’ conditions. In tandem with a different trade model of fair exchange, based on local trade and direct selling – Richardson cites the approach of Edinburgh-based Equal Exchange here – a re-envisaged sugar system could fundamentally “overhaul … the way that sweetness is consumed”.
Richardson argues that to achieve such a shift we don’t have to just rethink our relationship to sugar per se, but also change our relationships with one another. What’s the point of reducing sugar consumption, he asks, if people just suffer from other forms of diet-related ill health instead? From Richardson’s perspective, sugar is no one-off bogeyman to be isolated and defeated, but a key structural prop in the global capitalist food economy. So tackling the sugar monster ultimately means challenging the profit-driven organisation of food and farming itself.
Amen to that. And if this proposition sounds daunting, Richardson argues that the blatant dysfunction of the present sugar economy – the fact that it undermines the basis of its own survival by making us ill, for example – leaves us room to reconfigure it, provided that we don’t let the issue be reduced to “individual choice at the checkout”.
Richardson is an academic, and although the book is admirably readable, it is also a solid intellectual work that surveys a wealth of research and interesting ideas from a wide range of academic disciplines, and this gives it heft and authority. This fascinating material allows Richardson to explore sugar thoughtfully, and in so doing he shines a light on the dynamics of the whole industrial food system. As someone who has investigated the inner workings of this behemoth, I say his analysis is astute.
He introduces us, for instance, to the perceptive concept of “substitutionism” (coined by sociologists David Goodman, Bernando Sorj and John Wilkinson), the business model that allows manufacturers to “continually extend the market in which their commodities can circulate”. In the case of sugar, it’s the story of classic crystalline sugar being replaced in turn by high-fructose corn syrup, then artificial, then supposedly “natural” sweeteners, but this is just one example of the industrial food system’s constant reinvention of its products. It could also snugly fit other commodity ingredients that Big Food manipulates so profitably, such as corn, wheat and industrially refined vegetable oils.
There is something refreshingly subversive about Richardson’s book because it isn’t anti-sugar as such, but rather against the system that makes this commodity such a bewitching, biddable muse for corporations. He reports on legitimate critiques of sugar from a range of perspectives (human health, environmental impact, labour relations, and more), but then takes the debate further by suggesting these might cohere into “broader systemic change that would make sugar provisioning more ecologically sound and socially just”.
Do we really need another book on sugar? In this instance, the answer is an emphatic yes.
Joanna Blythman is an investigative journalist and the author of seven books on food, including Swallow This. Twitter: @JoannaBlythman