Abstract
Environmental justice (EJ) is becoming recognized as involving not only the governance of air, water, and land but also as a part of everyday life systems that create vulnerability to danger, such as food systems. The food regimes created by industry in the Global South are particularly implicated as an understudied intersection between environmental destruction, noncommunicable diseases, and social inequality; here, the focus will be on refined sugar within these food systems as a site of socially normalized environmental injustice. Building on stories centered around communities in India, this research examines how the cultivation of sugarcane and sugar production lead to environmental destruction through intensive monoculture farming practices, pollution, and exploitative working conditions, whereas the prevalence and marketing of sugar have negative health impacts. This article claims that the damage done to people’s health through their diets is inseparable from inadequate environmental, agricultural, and food policies. Marginalized groups, including rural areas and poor families, suffer more environmental and dietary consequences than other social groups, although having little say in decision-making procedures. Instead of perceiving the consumption of processed sugar to be purely an individual decision, this article offers an approach grounded in food systems that considers justice as the core principle guiding this effort. The connection made between the regulation of the environment, the policy concerning health, and social protection provides a platform for achieving food justice and health equity. In the context of the EJ 2076 framework, this article proposes that for the next several decades, the concept of EJ will necessarily involve addressing preventable harms that are perpetuated by everyday practices like food systems.
INTRODUCTION
Environmental justice (EJ) initially began as a social movement focused on the distribution of environmental hazards. However, the concept of EJ has expanded to a broader perspective on how social, political, and economic systems contribute to the exposure of vulnerable groups to harm. Although air pollution, water pollution, and the loss of land are some of the major issues associated with EJ, the food system, especially the industrial food system, is a relatively underexplored dimension of EJ. This is despite the significant role of the food system in the broader issues of EJ. The industrialization of the food system in the Global South is associated with the increasing prevalence of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), environmental degradation, and socioeconomic inequality. Among the industrial food products, sugar is an interesting case. On the one hand, the production of sugar is resource intensive and ecologically harmful. On the other hand, the consumption of sugar is socially constructed and heavily promoted.
For clarity and consistency, this article uses the term refined sugar to refer to sugar produced through industrial processing for mass consumption. Where the term industrial is used, it is employed descriptively to denote production scale rather than as a separate analytical category.
The article contends that refined sugar needs to be acknowledged as an essential issue of EJ. The article seeks to achieve this by critically analyzing refined sugar using the interrelated prisms of environmental degradation, health inequality, and poor governance to recast the issue of dietary harm beyond the dichotomy of individual agency. The study is based on community-centered research narratives to explore the issue of refined sugar within the broader context of India.
Even as this article draws on an empirical approach based on the experiences of India, it is worth noting that it does not attempt to make claims on behalf of all of the Global South. It is chosen as a pertinent and illustrative case by virtue of its size, diversity of ecosystems, and the coexistence of advanced forms of industrial agriculture alongside persistent inequalities in the realms of both public health and the environment. Although the phenomena described, including the unsustainable use of natural resources, inadequate enforcement of environmental regulations, dietary shifts, and acceptance of the risks involved with food, can be observed across other regions of the Global South, the implications drawn here are specific to India.
Similar dynamics have been observed in other sugar-producing regions of the Global South, including parts of Latin America and Southeast Asia, suggesting the need for future comparative research on food systems and EJ.
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK: EJ AND FOOD SYSTEMS
EJ is rooted in the idea that none of the groups of people on the planet should have to face a disproportionate burden of the negative effects of the environment as a result of industrial, governmental, or commercial activity. Modern EJ theory is composed of three distinct areas of focus. The first is distributive justice, the second is procedural justice, and the last is recognitional justice.1 These interconnections between distributive, procedural, and recognitional justice across sugar production and consumption are summarized in Table 1.
The food system interacts with all of the areas of EJ theory. With regard to distributive justice, industrial agriculture causes pollution, land degradation, and water consumption. With regard to procedural justice, the people most impacted by the food system are not included in the decision-making processes around the trade policies. Finally, the lived experiences of the impacts of the food system are not recognized. This is certainly the case with refined sugar. The production of refined sugar causes harm to the environment. The consumption of refined sugar causes a host of nonNCDs. The harm is not equally distributed. Those without access to health care or political power are the most impacted.
In order to shed additional light on how EJ is applied in sugar systems, it is important that this article maps out the three dimensions of EJ to the production and consumption of refined sugar. 2 Through this, it becomes apparent why refined sugar is considered to be an injustice in itself.
INDUSTRIAL SUGAR PRODUCTION AND ENVIRONMENTAL HARM
The process of refining sugar in industrial quantities depends upon practices such as monoculture farming, chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and a large amount of water consumption. In many countries such as India, sugarcane is being cultivated in water-scarce zones. This has resulted in groundwater depletion and has further reduced the production of food crops. The sugar factories produce effluent waste that affects the quality of soil and water, and hence the productivity of food crops.
The quantifiable impact on the environment as a result of the cultivation of sugarcane can be shown by scientific proof. This has been proven through several investigations carried out that indicate the amount of water consumed during the growth of sugarcane in India, which may surpass 1,500–2,000 millimeters per hectare.3,4 Also, according to findings by environmental regulatory bodies, effluent wastes from sugar milling plants have been found to be rich in terms of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD), thus resulting in pollution of the surrounding soils and water. 5
The environmental degradation caused by the sugar industry is not recognized as a justice issue. The people in rural India who live in the periphery of the sugarcane fields and factories face issues such as reduced soil fertility and lack of access to clean water and increased exposure to environmental pollution. At the same time, these people do not benefit from the sugar economy. The migrant workers who work in the sugarcane fields face a lack of job and wage security. 6
The environmental cost of sugar production is imposed on the community that is least capable of resisting or recovering from the damage. This is a general problem with environmental governance, which struggles with the enforcement of regulations, with corporate interests being placed before the common good.
REFINED SUGAR CONSUMPTION AND HEALTH INEQUITY
The accelerated consumption of refined sugars has correspondingly increased in line with the development of NCDs in the Global South.7,8 This has led to a normalization of high levels of consumption among different socioeconomic groups due to urbanization patterns and the marketing efforts of food companies. 9 Nevertheless, the burden of these effects has predominantly been experienced by the poor.
In these societies, which are often characterized by a lack of access to healthy food options, the prevalence of cheap foodstuffs high in refined sugars has become the norm. This has led to a narrative that shifts the onus from individuals and their responsibilities for healthy lifestyle choices. This has further led to a shift in blame from individuals, particularly women, for the prevalence of these issues. In India, diabetes and obesity are becoming major concerns for rural and semi-urban populations, which challenges the idea that NCDs are a product of wealth. This has further led to a stratification of society based on refined sugars. 10
There is evidence from epidemiology on an increasing number of people with diabetes and obesity in rural India. From surveys conducted within India, there has been a doubling of the cases of diabetes among rural populations in the last two decades; estimates show that about 12%–15% of rural Indians have high glucose levels indicative of type 2 diabetes. 11 This is further supported by stories on an increase in NCD burden in places where there is a shift in their diets toward consuming more refined foods with sugar.12,13
These dynamics reflect broader food justice concerns documented across the Global South, where dietary transitions intersect with structural inequality, environmental degradation, and rising nonNCDs.7,8
Consequences of consuming processed sugar also have gender dimensions. Women, especially those from poorer, rural homes, tend to have more responsibilities regarding provisioning and caregiving than access to food settings and resources. In addition, when it comes to diet-related health consequences, people tend to moralize nutrition practices and individualize health consequences, thus placing undue blame on women. Such an intersection of issues makes it evident that the problem at hand cannot be approached merely through behavior change but calls for justice-based solutions.
METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH: COMMUNITY-CENTERED NARRATIVES
The present article follows a qualitative, community-focused approach informed by narrative analysis. The study draws upon observations, interviews, and experiences of living stories in India, emphasizing voices that are not commonly represented in policy and academic discussions. These stories are of people living in agricultural pollution in rural areas, women struggling to ensure adequate nutrition in households under economic pressure, and living through the health consequences of dietary changes.
The present study resists these stories as anecdotal or descriptive, instead placing them within larger patterns of environmental governance, food policy, and public health. This is in line with approaches of EJ that emphasize experiential knowledge and are skeptical of technocratic approaches to analysis.
GOVERNANCE FAILURES AND POLICY GAPS
The continuity of sugar-related environmental and health damages is a consequence of systemic governance failure. There are subsidies to agriculture, trade policies, and food regulations that promote industrial production without considering the external costs to the environment. Sugarcane is given political and economic protection despite its ecological damage in India.
There are public health policies that emphasize downstream interventions such as awareness programs, health advice, and individual behaviors. 14 Environmental regulations on the use of effluents and water are not stringently implemented, especially in rural areas. This shows a fragmented system where food, health, and environmental policies are implemented independently. There is a lack of an integrated justice-oriented approach to address the problem.
The examples above of governmental failure clearly show that the negative impacts of refined sugar do not happen by chance; they are structural in nature due to the lack of coherence among policies regulating the environment, agriculture, and public health. The lack of coherence allows for the normalization and perpetuation of environmental damage and health inequalities. Refined sugar, thus, needs to be addressed from an EJ perspective, and such an approach is discussed further below.
TOWARD A JUSTICE-ORIENTED FOOD SYSTEMS FRAMEWORK
To address refined sugar as an EJ issue, it is necessary to move away from individualistic paradigms toward a more collective approach to solving the problem. This would mean the construction of a justice-oriented food systems approach to health. This would mean the integration of environmental regulation, public health policy, and social protection. Some of the components of a justice-oriented food systems approach to health would be:
Strengthening environmental regulations to address pollution Realigning subsidies to support diversified agriculture Regulating the marketing of sugar, especially to vulnerable groups Investing in access to affordable and nutritious foods among vulnerable groups Engaging communities in decision making around food and the environment
This approach acknowledges the need to address the systems to achieve health equity.
DISCUSSION: GLOBAL SOUTH PERSPECTIVES AND EJ 2076
The results of this article also emphasize the need to understand EJ within the existing frameworks that perpetuate harm in the Global South. In contrast to many scenarios in the Global North, where environmental injustice is often defined by specific industrial or pollution events, environmental injustice is deeply ingrained in normalized economic and cultural practices like food production and consumption in the Global South. Refined sugar is an example of normalized environmental injustice, where the effects of refined sugar on the environment and human health are clearly visible but politically acceptable and socially ignored.6
In the context of India and other countries like it, environmental injustice is not an isolated incident but a cumulative effect of pollutants in the environment, the quality of agricultural land, the availability of food options, and access to health care. This is an example of how food is an instrument of structural violence.6 The normalization of refined sugar consumption is an example of how environmental injustice is perpetuated by poor environmental governance.
This type of analysis is in line with the EJ 2076 vision, which advocates for a future-oriented understanding of justice that takes into account issues of intergenerational justice and systemic harm. In order for EJ in the next 50 years to be relevant, it needs to transcend its conventional boundaries and address issues that are not immediately visible but are silently perpetuating injustice, such as issues of food systems. In terms of justice in the Global South, it is not just technology that is needed but also democracy, policy, and recognition of experiences as forms of knowledge.
POLICY IMPLICATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
The identification of refined sugar as an EJ issue calls for an interrelated response to the issue. The first step is to strengthen environmental regulations related to the production of refined sugar. The regulations need to be implemented to ensure that the discharge of wastewater, groundwater extraction, and soil pollution are addressed. The people who live near sugarcane fields and mills need to be part of the process of monitoring the environment.
The second step is to address the agricultural policies related to sugarcane cultivation. The policies need to be extended beyond those related to monoculture. The policies can be used to promote diverse or climate-resilient crops. The move can also be used to address the issue of farmers becoming too dependent on environmentally damaging cash crops.
Third, the public health policy needs to move beyond an individual behavior-centered approach to awareness creation. This means addressing structural factors such as the regulation of sugar marketing to kids and poor people, transparent labeling of food products, and the provision of affordable healthy food options. Otherwise, awareness creation is not sufficient.
Last, the policies regarding food, health, and the environment need to be integrated within a justice-oriented governance system. This can be done to eliminate the fragmentation that is allowing environmental and health degradation to take place.
The regulation of refined sugar marketing and consumption cannot be done via policy tools that focus on mere awareness and voluntary compliance within industries. Some examples of such interventions can be a ban on advertisements of sugar-rich foods targeting children through the media and online; implementation of financial penalties and charges such as taxation of sugar-containing beverages as a way of discouraging excessive intake of sugar, hence providing government revenues for health initiatives; and the need for mandatory labeling of sugar-added products on package front labels in a manner that people understand their contents.
Environmental Justice Dimensions in Refined Sugar Production and Consumption
Importantly, such regulatory mechanisms must be designed with equity considerations to ensure that fiscal policies do not disproportionately burden low-income populations and that revenues are reinvested in affordable, nutritious food access.
LIMITATIONS AND FUTURE RESEARCH
It must be noted that the current study is qualitative in nature and based on community-centered narratives from India, which may not be universally applicable for the entire Global South. Although narrative-based approaches are integral to EJ studies, further research can enhance the current study by incorporating mixed-method approaches.
Further research is needed on various aspects, such as a comparative study on different sugar production systems, and how digital technologies, transparency in data, and artificial intelligence-based monitoring can aid in ensuring accountability in food and environmental systems.
Further research on the gendered impact of dietary harm and care burdens will help in deepening our understanding of food systems as sites of injustice.
CONCLUSION
This article has sought to demonstrate that refined sugar is not just an issue of diet but also an issue of EJ. In the Global South, refined sugar is not just a product of diet but also a product of failure in environmental governance, food regimes, and health systems, which are all issues of justice for the marginalized.
To advance health justice in the next 50 years, we need to address the normalized harms of our daily systems, including our diet. A justice-based approach to food systems is critical for building environmentally sustainable societies that are also just. The integration of EJ into our food systems is not optional but a prerequisite for building health justice toward 2076 and beyond.
AUTHORS’ CONTRIBUTION
The author conceptualized the study, conducted the research, developed the theoretical framework, performed the analysis, and wrote the manuscript. The author reviewed and approved the final version of the manuscript.
Footnotes
AUTHOR DISCLOSURE STATEMENT
No competing financial interests exist.
FUNDING INFORMATION
No funding was received for this article.