LEAVING HOME FOR SUGAR continues the history of sugar, focusing on later developments in the West Indies and Zimbabwe.

Following the withdrawal of the Dutch in 1654 from the Brazilian sugar cane industry, the Caribbean became the center of world sugar production. With an ever-increasing demand for sugar in Europe, and as many as 15 million slaves transported from Africa, the West Indian sugar industry was for 200 years one of history's most profitable enterprises.

Following Abolition, the plantations of the West Indies declined and the market favored European sugar beet production and newer ventures in the Pacific and Africa.

Besides looking at the rise and fall of sugar in the West Indies, LEAVING HOME FOR SUGAR contrasts two sides of the history of sugar in Zimbabwe: the companies' story of turning semi-desert into model plantations, and the story told by local farmworkers who were dispossessed or brought in as forced labor.

Today in Europe and North America the demand for cane sugar is falling as a result of protectionist policies, health concerns, and the use of new artificial sweeteners. LEAVING HOME FOR SUGAR ends with the multi-national agricultural companies looking for new markets for cane sugar - ironically in the producing countries themselves.

"Choice Pick... [Curling's and Clayton's] curiously effective amalgam of actuality and simulation reveals some unsuspected truths about the way the wonder bean has also kept commerce and politics in a state of maximum alertness ever since the first revivifying cupful of the brew was swallowed."—The Times (London)

—"College courses in international economics and business would find these materials of interest, especially those dealing with problems of emerging economies."—Library Journal

"COMMODITIES delves deep into the quagmire of the World Debt Crisis, providing a powerful argument against the depoliticisation of events like 'Feed the World,' which insists on treating famine relief as an issue unrelated to the politics of inequality."—New Music Express

"Recommended for all libraries."—Choice