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Show Facts and Fancies -1 When Renaissance Euro- 1 peans got sick, they didnt t take sugar-coated pilU they took sugar! Oddly, when i sugar cane was first intro- ' duced to Europe, it was con- 1 sidered a medicine. ' Not until 1747 was it da- covered that there was i j source of sugar other than cane: beet. Initially, though, j beet sugar was scorned as i being inferior to cane sugar, t Ultimately, scientific expert- ' ments proved that the two ' sugars were absolutely idenu- ' SUGAR, INTRODUCED TO EUROPE BY THE CRUSADERS, CRU-SADERS, war luxuir ' i for the wealthy for centuriei r By the late 1870's, brt I sugar had finally becoa f commercially feasible, tni many countries rushed te grow beets in order to redua their dependence on sufsr cane, which had to be imported im-ported from tropical climates. Today, both beet and cx- sugar are produced in tfc L.S., yet our .American producers pro-ducers may be threatened by the dumping of foreign rir-plus rir-plus sugar on our markra. Concerned legislators point out that if we continue to permit this, American producers pro-ducers might be driven out of business, making us dependent depen-dent on foreign sugar. If this happened, a "sugs; OPEC" could play havoc wid: our supply, as foreign oil producers did with our oil-and oil-and that might be a bitter pi to swallow! |