Sugar and Capitalism

Sugar may seem like a natural, almost eternal substance, cultivated over thousands of years. But it was remade by capitalism and turned into a homogenized commodity. Enslaved labor was central to sugar production on vast plantations, which would then be discarded as sugar laid waste to both the lands and human bodies. And, as historian of science David Singerman illustrates, scientific techniques were utilized to standardize sugar, while attempting to replace the knowledge of the workers who labored in its refineries.

David Singerman, Unrefined: How Capitalism Reinvented Sugar University of Chicago Press, 2025

Photo by Immo Wegmann on Unsplash

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