Sugar is a commonplace product with a complex background, mainly because of the high degree of protectionism given to the industry and the benefits of ensuring domestic producers stay in business. This book asks why there are such disagreements over trade policy, who profits within the current regime, and where power ultimately lies.

Sugar is a commonplace product with a complex background, mainly because of the high degree of protectionism given to the industry and the benefits of ensuring domestic producers stay in business. This book asks why there are such disagreements over trade policy, who profits within the current regime, and where power ultimately lies.

Sugar consumption is suspected to play an important role in the pathogenesis of diabetes, cardiovascular disorders, fatty liver disease, and some forms of cancers. Dietary sugars—fructose in particular—also have a potential role in obesity and metabolic diseases. Dietary Sugars and Health presents all aspects of dietary sugars as they relate to health and disease. It provides a review of the current science related to dietary sugars, ranging from historical and cultural perspectives to food science and production to basic research, animal trials, human pathophysiology, epidemiology, and public health policy implications. Each chapter features a concise, thorough summary of the current knowledge, including an overview of cutting-edge research, controversies, and future perspectives. The book provides a balanced approach through global and multidisciplinary contributions as well as input from various sectors, from academia to the food and beverage industry. The overall collection provides readers with a balanced and complete view of the science related to dietary sugars and health. This book is an invaluable reference for food scientists, nutrition scientists, clinical and translational researchers, obesity researchers, physiologists, public health scientists, and policy makers.

Dispelling the myth of decline, Stuart Brown argues that the US continues to enjoy the economic, political, cultural and military underpinnings befitting a pre-eminent global power. He provides an analytical tour through the major domestic and foreign policy issues that will impact the United States' future position and role in the global system.

This book traces the changing meanings of free trade over the past century through three sugar treaties and their concomitant institutions. The 1902 Brussels Convention is an example of how free trade buttressed the British Empire. The 1937 International Sugar Agreement is a story of how a group of Cubans renegotiated their state's colonial relationship with the US through free trade doctrine and the League of Nations. In addition, the study of the 1977 International Sugar Agreement maps the world of international trade law through a plethora of institutions such as the ITO, UNCTAD, GATT and international commodity agreements - all against the backdrop of competing Third World agendas. Through a legal study of free trade ideas, interests and institutions, this book highlights how the line between the state and market, domestic and international, and public and private is always a matter of contest.

Europe's trade policies matter in global politics. Despite the recent focus on Brazil, India, and particularly China, the European Union remains the world's largest market and trader. Despite its recent economic troubles, Europe remains in a powerful position to shape how globalization is governed. We know surprisingly little about how its trade policy is actually made, because previous works have focused on individual trade policy decisions to the detriment of the 'big picture' of the Union as a trade power. Parochial Global Europe argues that trade policy is composed of multiple, distinct policies. Each presents a distinctive constellation of mobilized societal preferences, pattern of political institutions, and range of government preferences. The balance of economic power between the EU and its trade partner(s) affects the stakes involved. Together these four factors define trade policy sub-systems, which help explain both the EU's objectives and whether it realizes them. The authors advance this argument by analysing the EU's role in the demise of the Doha Round, its use of anti-dumping and pursuit of market access, the trade effects of its single market programme and efforts at regulatory diplomacy, including the launch of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership negotiations. Parochial Global Europe thus focuses centrally on modern, 21st century trade policy. It also sheds light on the EU as a global actor by analysing its use of trade policy as a tool of foreign policy from promoting development, to encouraging human rights and environmental protection, to punishing security threats.

There is more sugar in the world's diet than ever before, but life is far from sweet for the exploited producers making nature's 'white gold' and the unhealthy consumers eating it. Why has the billion-dollar sugar trade created such inequities? In this insightful analysis, Ben Richardson argues that the most compelling answers to this question can be found in the dynamics of global capitalism. Led by multinational companies, the mass consumption of sweetened snacks has taken hold 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, challenges to these practices are gathering momentum. Health advocates warning against costly diseases like diabetes, trade unions fighting for better pay, and local residents campaigning for a cleaner environment are all re-shaping the way sugar is consumed and produced. But to truly transform sugar, Richardson contends, these political activities must also address the profit-driven nature of food and farming itself.