Sugar is anything but sweet. For centuries, it has shaped our environment, society, economy, and bodies — usually in detrimental ways.
Reverend Sara Jolena Wolcott, M.Div., is a minister and eco-theologian dedicated to learning and educating about sugar’s complicated history and role in modern diets. A graduate of Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York and of the Institute for Development Studies in Sussex, England, she runs the eco-theology company Sequoia Samanvaya, where she integrates earth-honoring practices, theology, ritual, and storytelling to address the spiritual root causes of systemic concerns of our time. She writes, speaks, and teaches on the histories of sugar, ecology, decolonization, spiritual shifts, and eco-theology across and between different faith traditions.
After a popular presentation for Nutrition Without Borders in Spring 2021, she answered more student questions about the history of sugar and its implications on public health today.
NWB: How was sugar first used by humans, and how has that changed over the years?
SJW: The first sugar plantations were developed in the Middle Ages in the Arabic world, picked up by crusaders, and experimented with on the coast of Spain, and subsequently brought to what Europeans referred to as the “New World.” Those plantations became the seed of what we now call the industrial revolution:, creating a world that went faster than humans can really go, without either slavery or fossil fuels. Sugar fueled the factory workers in Europe, increasing sugar dependency, and eventually became part of the everyday diet of people around the world.
As Howard Mintz, in his superb book, Sweetness and Power, explains, Europeans (and most of the world) did not know or use sugar until 1650. At that time, sugar was integrated into medicine, literary imagery and social displays of rank for nobility. By 1800, sugar was a staple in the English diet. By 1900, sugar supplied 1/5 of the calories in the English diet. In just a few centuries, the English went from no sugar in their diet to several spoonfuls in every cup of tea, multiple times a day. All of this sugar which was produced on sugar plantations— on once sacred land that had been stolen from Native people forced peoples that had been forced to abandon their own ecosystems and healthy, sustainable eating patterns.
NWB: What happened after slavery was abolished, and plantations were disabled?
SJW: Once slavery was abolished, the plantations continued enabled, in part, by continued racism. Sometimes plantations moved locations, others used indentured servants from Hawai’i, India, and China, to continue production. The “sugar diaspora” is wide and ethnically varied. Many of the descendents of those who were brutally forced to work on the plantations are now suffering from chronic illnesses, including but not only diabetes, partly because of the close relationship between the social determinants of health and non-communicable chronic diseases.
NWB: How does this history of sugar impact us today?
SJW: Our tastes are deeply socially influenced. As babies and small children, we have a natural preference for sweet things and we utterly depend upon others feeding us. We both inherit and forge identities around food.
In modern society, the life blood of dozens of major industries, from sugary beverages (i.e. Pepsi-Cola) to agriculture and dairy industries, to major food companies (i.e. Nestle), depend upon people continually choosing the taste of adulterated sugary foods and the social implications that go along with it.
We can also look to “Big Sugar”: the consortium of families, corporations, traders, and others who have been lobbying governments for several centuries to ensure policies that maximize their profits regardless of ecological or human suffering. They continue to unduly influence what we think “tastes good.” Poverty, more often than not, serves them well; people are far more likely to buy cheap sugar when they have fewer options to maintain their own energy in taxing working conditions.
NWB: What exactly is an eco-theologian and what do you do?
SJW: Eco theology sits within a triangle: humans (including families, social structures and institutions), ecology (including ecosystems, sacred places, food, drink, and waste), and Spirit. The core of eco-theology is an exploration of the core questions of human existence with the understanding that to be human is to be an ecological being: eating, drinking, merry making, and composting in relationship with all other beings.
As an eco-theologian, I work with what we have inherited. I study the way theologies have been embedded in different relationships, from institutions to families. While I am not a historian, it is nearly impossible to ask questions of meaning, purpose and appropriate change strategies without history. I am not only asking “what happened,” but also, “what we are making it mean today,” and “so what?”
NWB: How did you become interested in public health and the history of Sugar?
SJW: I come from a public health family - my mother was a public health educator and my father was something of an everyday eco-theologian, though he didn’t use that phrase. I worked for many years in international development, often on the intersections of public health and climate change.
That, however, did not actually get me interested in the history of sugar. I became interested when I was researching the intersections of colonization and climate change while living in one of the poorest and malnutritious neighborhoods in New York City: the south Bronx. Every time I went to the local clinic, I saw not only “health disparities,” but legacies of slavery, and in particular, the legacies of people who were enslaved on sugar plantations. I started specifically researching the histories of sugar, and was able to make connections between Big Sugar, the social determinants of health, and a vibrant, beautiful neighborhood that was fighting poverty and everyday sickness.
NWB: How important is it to consider the cultural relevance and anthropological history of sugar within marginalized communities when designing public health interventions?
SJW:Modern health disparities result in part from colonial histories. So do many of the chronic illnesses that beset those communities who benefited from colonization. Any intervention must support local communities and will do far better when aligning with local traditions.
This history, including the more recent histories of how sugar has become a deep part of many cultural celebrations and creates a sense of familial and cultural identities, is essential. Public health professionals can and must work with individual communities and address Big Sugar, Big Ag, and policies which continue to favor companies that are worsening ecological, economic, and social injustice. Finding ways to support indigenous food pathways is both valuable and, often, deeply satisfying.
NWB: Do you have any resources for anyone who is interested in learning more about the history of sugar?
SJW: I am one of many who offer courses and support people in designing curricula and various interventions. Asking people about their family histories of sugar is itself fascinating, and raises a wide array of narratives. Mintz’s book “Sweetness and Power” is a great place to start. Elizabeth Abbot’s book, “Sugar: A bittersweet history,” is also superb, as is the excellent educational resource, Sugar Changed the World.
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