Sugar: A Bitter Harvest of Human Misery

Sugar is the fuel that powers the global economy. It is made of equal parts sunlight and blood.

In 1791, an abolitionist pamphleteer wrote, “In every pound of sugar used, we may be considered as consuming two ounces of human flesh.” Today, we can estimate that, thanks to two centuries of hard struggle by labor and beneficent reforms enacted by our rulers, the share of flesh has been reduced to one ounce of flesh for every five pounds of sugar.

With a projected 189.3 million metric tons of produced sugar by the end of 2025, it can’t be disputed that people love the stuff. Sugar is found across the entire food industry, in breads, savory dishes and in alcohol. In the roughly ninety-three million seven hundred fifty thousand of cups of coffee served hourly. 

The vast majority of people in the world toil, suffer, and if they’re lucky, get the opportunity to chase dreams that will never really satisfy them. But along the way there are bright moments where a meal with friends, or a cool beverage satiates them, if just for a time. Sugar is one of the great enhancers of these moments. It’s a friend to the divorced mom, eating ice cream in the dark, and an aide to the exhausted accountant who needs a boost to meet his deadline.