It is said that "what goes around comes around."�And so we will be see­ing sug­ar prices ris­ing as the crop fail­ure in Brazil and In­dia burns its swathe. We, in our is­lands, can blame our lo­cal con­tin­gent of the ASS–An­ti Sug­ar (cul­ti­vat­ing)�So­ci­ety–all those who said sug­ar cul­ti­va­tion was a dead duck, and build­ing busi­ness­es, ho­tels, hous­es, po­lo and golf cours­es on sug­ar-pro­duc­ing land was the way to go, "and to hell with sug­ar."

True, far less sug­ar in our di­et and drink would cer­tain­ly re­duce much of the med­ical and den­tistry pro­fes­sion's wealth, but sug­ar cul­ti­va­tion kept our is­lands beau­ti­ful, and a mod­er­ate flock of peo­ple in work and, like Sea Is­land Cot­ton, helped keep the nose of our for­eign ex­change lev­els above wa­ter. The rea­son be­ing we re­al­ly knew, once, how to grow sug­ar well. All that is about to change. Like In­dia, we'll be buy­ing im­port­ed sug­ar short­ly, if we can find and af­ford it.�And we can blame the ASS for that.

Col­in L Bead­on

Mon­creiffe, St John