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See also section of this website entitled "Agriculture industry".

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2003:

Leaders Urged to End Child Labour [Uganda] - The workshop was organised by the Federation of Uganda Employers and Rural Development Media Communications (RUDMEC). Mr Rwebembera urged religious and political leaders to advocate an end to hazardous child labour...RUDMEC executive officer, Hamidu Kizito, said the worst forms of child labour were in sugar plantations, brick-laying sites, commercial sex and homes. (Wossita Samuel, The Monitor [Uganda], 12 May 2003)

WHO: Sugar Association Seeks Withdrawal Of Diet Report - The Sugar Association, a U.S. industry group, has told World Health Organization Director General Gro Harlem Brundtland in a letter that unless the WHO cancels the planned launch tomorrow of a report on diet and health, it will lobby the U.S. Congress to cut WHO funding, the London Guardian reported yesterday...Under new WHO guidelines contained in the report, sugar should account for no more than 10 percent of people's dietary intake. The association has said the figure should be 25 percent. (UN Wire, 22 Apr. 2003)

• Sugar industry threatens to scupper WHO - The sugar industry in the US is threatening to bring the World Health Organisation to its knees by demanding that Congress end its funding unless the WHO scraps guidelines on healthy eating, due to be published on Wednesday. The threat is being described by WHO insiders as tantamount to blackmail and worse than any pressure exerted by the tobacco lobby. (Sarah Boseley, Guardian [UK], 21 Apr. 2003)

Charter for voluntary pollution control [India] - The Ministry of Environment and Forests and industrial sector are all set to enter into a partnership on voluntary pollution control by releasing a charter on Corporate Responsibility for Environmental Protection in New Delhi on March 13...The 17 major polluting industries identified for preparatory approach towards pollution control are: cement, aluminium, thermal power plants, oil refineries, pesticides, iron and steel, pulp and paper, copper and zinc, distilleries, sugar, petrochemicals, dye and dye intermediates, caustic soda, pharmaceuticals, tanneries and fertilizer industry. (The Hindu, 10 Mar. 2003)

Retail therapy - Awareness of how and where goods are produced has soared - and so has the fair trade movement -...Now there are more than 100 products, ranging from tea, coffee and bananas to sugar, wine, honey, fruits, juices, snacks and biscuits, chilli peppers and meat. Coming next are fair trade clothes and textiles, and fair trade footballs...To go truly mainstream, though, fair trade must occupy more than a remote shelf in a supermarket. There are the first signs that that is happening as the Co-op and Safeway supermarkets start their own fair trade lines. (John Vidal, Guardian [UK], 26 Feb. 2003)

More tributes to tragic factory woman [UK] -...Lorriane Waspe, 40 of Valley Lane, Great Finborough, died when she was in collision with a piece of heavy machinery at the British Sugar Factory, in Bury St Edmunds on Wednesday. (Evening Star [UK], 7 Feb. 2003)

2002:

Widespread international condemnation of violations in Congo - An international outcry against violations of trade union rights in the Democratic Republic of Congo has followed a call from the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) for solidarity for 9 trade unionists [unionists representing workers at the Compagnie sucrière de Kwilu Ngongo] currently appealing a ten month prison sentence for legitimate trade union activities in the country. (International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, 1 Aug. 2002)

• {···español} El mundo condena las violaciones de derechos sindicales que se cometen en el Congo (Confederación Internacional de Organizaciones Sindicales Libres, 1 agosto 2002)

• {···français} Une vague internationale de condamnation contre des violations commises au Congo - Un tollé international contre les violations des droits syndicaux commises en République démocratique du Congo a suivi un appel à la solidarité lancé par la Confédération internationale des Syndicats libres (CISL) en faveur de 9 syndicalistes. (Confédération internationale des Syndicats libres, 31 juillet 2002) 

South African sugar farmers ease environmental impact -...The key contentious issue between farmers and nearby towns is the burning of cane during harvesting season. (Allan Seccombe, Reuters, 30 July 2002)

Letter of Protest [from ICFTU to President of Democratic Republic of Congo]: Democratic Republic of Congo: Arrest and sentencing of trade union leaders from the Compagnie sucrière de Kwilu-Ngongo [sugar company] (International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, 16 July 2002)

• {···français} Lettre de protestation: RD Congo: Incarcération et condamnation des dirigeants syndicaux de la Compagnie sucrière de Kwilu Ngongo (Confédération Internationale des Syndicats Libres, 16 juillet 2002)

{···français} Travail égal, salaires égaux [Ile Maurice]: Vers la ratification de deux conventions [du Bureau international du travail] par le gouvernement - La Convention 100 traite du paiement de salaires égaux aux hommes et femmes pour travail égal et la Convention 111 traite de la non-discrimination dans le travail et dans la classification des postes...Le BIT a identifié plusieurs Remunerations orders couvrant des secteurs où les salaires et la classification des postes se font sur la base du sexe. Ces Remunerations orders concernent l'industrie théière; le bétail; les salines; l'industrie sucrière; les vergers; les boulangeries; et le service traiteur. (Le Mauricien [Ile Maurice], 1 juin 2002)

Bidar DC to conduct survey of sugar factories [India]: The State Government will direct the Bidar District Deputy Commissioner to conduct a survey of all sugar factories to find out the prevalence of bonded labour...nine bonded labourers including one child worker were freed from the New Karnataka Khandsari Sugar Factory (from Economic Times [India], in Child Labour News Service, 1 Apr. 2002) 

Guatemala president slams sugar growers for fires (Reuters, 10 Jan. 2002)

2001:

Kenya Has 3.5m Child Workers - Unicef: Kenya has a staggering 3.5 million child labourers and most of them work under very difficult conditions...Most children labourers in Central Kenya are working in coffee and horticultural estates. In Western Kenya, the children work in sugar plantations. (Peter Ngare, East African Standard [Nairobi], 4 Dec. 2001)

Air and water pollution becoming great threat to citizens of Multan [Pakistan]: Air pollution and water pollution have become a great threat to the existence of the residents of Multan, spreading critical diseases due to continuous flow and discharge of gases from industrial fertiliser plants and liquid waste from municipal and industrial sources. [pollution from tanneries, paper factories, fertiliser units, dyes factories and textile matching units, sugar factories, power generating plants, oil and gas plants] (Hoover's Online, 15 Aug. 2001) 

MOZAMBIQUE: World Bank Agency To Insure Sugar Project: The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, a World Bank Group member, will provide $65 million in investment insurance to a consortium of four Mauritian companies and to the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa Ltd. to help rehabilitate and partially privatize Mozambique's largest sugar estate, the former Sena estate in the Marromeu region....The project, expected to create 5,000 jobs, will entail providing electricity and other improvements to a hospital, building roads, upgrading housing and schools and supplying water to the local community. (UN Wire, 6 July 2001)

Green Scissors 2001 exposes $55 billion in wasteful federal spending that harms the environment [USA]: Taxpayer and Environmental Groups Target 74 Pork Barrel Programs (press release by Friends of the Earth, Taxpayers for Common Sense, U.S. Public Interest Research Group, 22 Feb. 2001)

2000:

Sugar Multinationals Blamed for Blocking Help to Poorest Nations (Larry Elliott, Guardian, 27 Nov. 2000)