Over the past couple of years I have heard a variety of arguments advanced in support of sugar manufacturing in Ireland.

YOU would think farmers had a good future, in a world where food is getting scarcer.

A CORK County Council evaluation in 2006 of the viability of ethanol production from beet and wheat at the former sugar factory in Mallow showed it was technically feasible.

ETHANOL from crops looks like a sure-fire investment in the EU, with big operators expecting a payback within two or three years.

LAST year’s Common Agricultural Policy payments were sweet for the EU’s big sugar companies.