(Kate Hodal, The Guardian, July 09, 2013) – The plantation extends as far as the eye can see, row after row of green leaves swaying against the dusky blue light until, finally, it merges with the horizon. There are no houses, no animals, no people. Just sugar.
Standing by a rickety wooden fence that separates her clapboard home from the field in front of us, Yoen Sarin, 29, waves her hand in an arc. “My land extended from there to just over there.” She narrows her eyes. “The company tried to bulldoze their way closer but I built this fence, and even though they’ve already knocked it down twice, I’m not moving. I keep rebuilding it.”
Yoen Sarin is just one of thousands of Cambodian farmers who claim they are losing their land and livelihoods to big sugar plantations, some of which are directly supplying the EU through companies such as Tate & Lyle Sugars.