Albemarle's physician may not have had as much success with his Spanish gold-seeking as his noble employer but the Atlantic slave trade, and the bartering and dealing in sugar and sugar-related products including the large-scale importing of cinchona bark - the source for quinine - and cacao, brought him comparable riches.

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Alter Eco, which works directly with small-scale farmers who grow quinoa, rice, sugar and chocolate to help them institute Fair Trade.

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"It's incredibly difficult to scale a kid down to the recommended 50 grams of sugar when a juice box has 24, " said Heather Vanderhaar, of suburban Cincinnati.

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Companies are using proprietary technology that takes inputs as diverse as algae, willow trees and sugar cane to produce oils and biomaterials in standard fermentation facilities quickly, cleanly, inexpensively and on a large scale.

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