Alison Micklem

Sweetness and Might: Who Makes the News About Sugar? Alison Micklem

Roughly 40% of the EU budget is spent on the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) which was designed to help small EU farmers thrive in times of scarcity. It has been obsolete for the last 30 years. The policy now benefits a handful of large producers while small farmers go out of business. This is not just a gross misuse of EU tax-payers money, but has a devastating secondary effect on developing world economies. In response the NGO Oxfam launched a campaign in 2002 called 'Make Trade Fair'. Despite CAP reforms being announced in March 2013, the issue of sugar production remains unresolved. This book provides a thought provoking analysis of a complex and under-reported policy area. Utilising critical discourse analysis, frame theory and interviews with EU policy-makers, the reader is offered information and a critical analysis of the politics and political economic setting of the European approach to sugar, juxtaposed to the media campaign launched by Oxfam. This is a useful and very readable resource for journalists, citizens, NGO activists and all those interested in the role of the media in blocking critical evaluations of specific policy from the public domain.