If you’re interested in the broader history of food and specifically sugar, this article by Professor Richard Mithen, Chief Scientist from High Value Nutrition is worth a read.

In it he says he was drawn to the history of sugar not only for the ongoing controversy about it, but the sometimes-dark social history of the industry’s development, including the role of African slaves in the ‘triangular trade’ between the Caribbean, Europe and West Africa, and the use of indentured labour from the Pacific Islands to the Australian sugar plantations. As a New Zealander, Professor Mithen also tells the tale of the establishment of the country’s first refinery at Birkenhead now known as the Chelsea Sugar Refinery. It is one of the longest continually functioning industrial works in New Zealand.