The Wire

This week saw Australia’s sugar industry handed a very sweet deal indeed. To make up for the fact that sugar wasn’t included in the US trade agreements, the industry gets $440 million dollars from the Federal government. At an individual level that means farmers who choose to leave the industry get a $100,000 golden handshake. Political and financial commentator Steven Mayne (aka Crikey) says the industry is being effectively rewarded for inefficency and environmental vandalism and that a lot of that money will be collected by multinational sugar refining companies.