
To alcohol, the cause of, and solution to, all of life’s problems. –Homer Simpson
Having recently been sounded out about writing a biweekly column on the sugarcane processing industry in Brazil, I immediately wonder whether I can get away with a veiled reference or two to former Brooklyn College anthropologist Sidney Mintz, best known for his book Sweetness and Power:
Mintz has published several books and many articles and reviews. In 1956, his study of a sugarcane village became part of The People of Puerto Rico, edited by Julian Steward and others. In 1960, he published Worker in the Cane, the life story of a cane worker who came from that same village. And in 1985, he wrote Sweetness and Power, which is concerned with the history of sugar worldwide. He has since written papers on the anthropology of food, and initiated research on the global role of soybeans and soy foods, while continuing his Caribbean work.
No, check that. The truth is that the first thought that occurs to me is a sequence from The Simpsons that takes a piss out of the use of ethanol to fuel automobiles.




