Abstract
Despite its historical associations with slavery and current public health concerns, sugar remains a surprisingly 'invisible' commodity in terms of its everyday consumption. While NGOs and campaigning groups have sought to heighten sugar's political profile, the recent reform of the EU sugar regime failed to generate widespread public interest and debates about fair trade and ethical consumption have tended to focus on other commodities (such as tea, coffee and chocolate). Drawing on a series of life history interviews with sugar beet farmers and other key players in the UK sugar industry, the paper maps the moral geographies that are woven around the production and consumption of this mundane product. The paper concludes that a relational view of space and scale may help resolve some of the moral and ethical dilemmas uncovered in our research.