Text 37702, 51 rader
Skriven 2010-05-12 23:48:00 av hap newsom (1:124/311)
     Kommentar till en text av MICHAEL LOO
Ärende: Lifesavers
==================
Hola Michael!

->  JW> Beet sugar is always refined all the way to pure white. The
->  JW> intermediate steps are most unpleasant unlike cane molasses.
-> 
-> That's probably because the modern technique of beet sugarmaking
-> is different from the old one (steep beets in water, boil down).
-> Old-style beet molasses is said to have been perfectly edible
-> and comparable to cane molasses.
-> 
->  JW> BTW the USA is big on domestic beet sugar which is heavily
->  JW> subsidized while imported Caribbean cane sugar is restricted by
->  JW> tariffs there. But Canada can only grow sugar beets economically in
->  JW> a small part of southern Alberta and the harvest is small, about 20%
->  JW> of our needs. We neither subsidize beet production nor tax imported
->  JW> cane sugar.
-> 
-> Guilty on the tariffs, but there is almost as much cane sugar
-> produced in the US as beet. According to the incredibly conservative
-> Cato Institute, the ratio is 54 beet sugar to 46 cane sugar.
-> 
-> And as far as subsidies go, here are the figures from the incredibly
-> nonconservative Environmental Working Group (ewg.org) -
-> 
-> subsidy $ year
-> 104520665 2000
->  44124510 2001
->  44288049 2002
->  48301887 2003
->    804477 2004
->     15891 2005
->         0 2006 and beyond
-> 
-> Large-scale sugar beet industry in the US is pretty new - until
-> recently, importation and the modest sugarcane industry gave
-> the US enough sugar at a reasonable price; it was only due to
-> the selective breeding of high-sugar beets and advancements in
-> extracting technology that this sector has flourished. These
-> subsidies are pretty understandable in the context, as is the
-> absence of subsidy for the last five years.
-> 
In 2003 the Kraft company closed the Lifesavers plant in 
Holland Michigan and moved production to Montreal Quebec.
This was soley an economic move as the company saved
10 cents a pound on sugar costs...(note: the cost of lifesavers
did not go down, but the company's profits did go UP) in
Canada as compared to the USA. 
chat with you soon
hap 
--- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v3.0pr5a
 * Origin: FidoTel & QWK on the Web! www.fidotel.com (1:124/311)