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When Tate & Lyle announced in July 2001 that it was selling off its Domino Sugar refinery operations in Brooklyn New York to an investment group dominated by a Cuban family with extensive cane growing interests in Florida, it hardly registered as a news story outside of the extraordinary world of sugar. FOR ME IT WAS A BIG LEAD TO FOLLOW, EXTENDING THE LOVE LANE SUGAR TRAIL DOWN TO THE SUNSHINE STATE AND NEW QUESTIONS AND ISSUES. I QUICKLY REALISED THAT THE WORLD OF BIG SUGAR AND THE FANJULS IN FLORIDA WAS INEXTRICABLY LINKED TO THE DEGRADATION OF A WORLD ECO-TREASURE, A RIVER OF GRASS CALLED THE EVERGLADES. If you want more graphic confirmation of that fact, ask American novelist Carl Hiassen.
Posted by Ron Noon in Beyond The Lane on Saturday, December 13th 2008
This is a detailed piece which elaborates more on the “sugar wars” between beet and cane, and the egregious European Economic Community’s Common Agricultural Policy. This conspicuously advantaged FIRST WORLD sugar beet growers, over THIRD WORLD growers of cane and what Belinda Coote called “the Hunger Crop”. Cane is the most efficient collector of solar energy and “if” there was a level playing field in the INTERNATIONAL SUGAR ECONOMY who would need The European Beet Boys?
Posted by Ron Noon in On The Lane on Friday, December 05th 2008
This blog contains a graphic description of Love Lane in 1973, two years after the first rumours of closure started to go the rounds, and a much earlier depiction of the “romantic” rural walkway that Liverpool ladies “perambulated” along.
Posted by Ron Noon in On The Lane on Wednesday, December 03rd 2008
Today’s blog is in two parts. The first is something that I wrote last night as a proposal to talk about our LOVE LANE LIVES “public history” project in CHICAGO (!) at a Labor History Convention next year. (That’s how Yanks spell labour!)
The Second part is a bit more speculative and “philosophical” dealing with some thoughts about PUBLIC HISTORY more generally and what it actually means. It will be interesting to get people’s responses to these thoughts.
Posted by Ron Noon in on Monday, December 01st 2008
One upon a time, (and not so long ago), I felt that the project was going to collapse because of haemorrhages in our funding which were beyond my control. We survived because of Leon Seth and Maggie Skilling and another “sweetfighter” who needs to be eulogised for his unstinting devotion to the LOVE LANE cause. His name is….
Posted by Ron Noon in on Saturday, November 29th 2008