This paper draws inspiration from an elderly sugarcane farmer in Barbados, Mr Thompson, who took part in a participatory video (PV) project and informal life history interviews with the author in 2007. The author mobilises Mr Thompson's life history as a situated account of the influence of the European Union (EU) sugar regime, considering how this trade regime and the local state‐owned sugar industry have been implicated in his life. It is demonstrated how Europe's wide‐reaching trade agenda is embodied in both the life history and the living present of a particular individual. Tracing the story of Mr Thompson, the paper draws heavily on his own words and audio‐visual presentations. From these video‐based expressions, we glimpse relations between a personal history, a set of embodied encounters and a broader (post)colonial legacy. Mr Thompson evokes an alternative understanding of sugar in Barbados, acting as a counterpoint to claims that promote neoliberal reform. Charting the experiences of one person, the paper suggests, offers a useful and valid position from which to critique the EU sugar reform at large. Finally, the paper discusses how a methodological coupling of PV and life history interviewing provided a valuable tool for engaging with and expressing situated knowledges.