Sugar:

Sugar (sucrose) is found in almost all plants, but at concentrations high enough for economic recovery only in sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum) and sugarbeet (Beta vulgaris). The former is a giant grass growing in tropical and subtropical areas; the latter is a root crop growing in temperate zones. Sucrose from either source (or from the relatively minor sources, maple tree and date palm) is the same C12 H22 O11 molecule yielding 3.94 kilocalories/gram as do all carbohydrates; differences in sugar products come from other components isolated with sucrose.

The word sugar comes from "Carkara" (Sanskrit); the first sugar crop was cane, developed from wild varieties in the East Indies, probably New Guinea. Sugarbeet was developed in Europe in the 18th century at Napoleon's request for an alternate home grown source of sugar, to save his ships from running blockade in the Caribbean. Sugarcane, once harvested, cannot be stored because of sucrose decomposition; therefore, the two-stage manufacture of raw sugar in the cane-growing areas, with shipment to countries of high sugar consumption for refining into food products, developed. Sugarbeet, which can be stored, is generally processed in one stage into white sugar.

SOME SUGAR FACTS

§ Worldwide, 136.1 million tons of sugar were produced in the 1999/2000 crop year. Of this amount, 98.8 million tons (72.6%) was cane sugar and 37.3 million tons was beet sugar (27.4%).

§ The United States is the only country in the world that produces major quantities of both cane and beet sugar. Most other countries produce only one or the other.

§ With few exceptions, every country in the world produces either cane or beet sugar; if a country does not produce sugar, it imports sugar. Many countries have to import sugar even when they produce some domestic sugar because they can't supply all the demand domestically.

§ Louisiana and Florida produce about 90% of the U.S. total sugarcane. Minor amounts are produced by Texas, Hawaii and Puerto Rico.

§ In 1999/2000 the U.S. produced about 4.5 million tons of sugar from sugar beets and about about 3.4 million tons of sugar from sugarcane. All the beet sugar used in the U.S. is produced in the U.S. We neither export nor import beet sugar. In spite of all that production, we still need to import about 1.12 million tons of raw sugar from about 20 countries around the world to meet our domestic needs.

§ There are 7 raw sugar mills in Florida and 18 in Louisiana. Louisiana harvests cane and makes raw sugar during a short harvest season, from mid-September to late December. Florida harvests from around mid-October to March.

§ Louisiana and Florida have approximately the same acreage in sugar cane: 443,000 in Florida and 435,000 in Louisiana. From this, Florida makes about 1.57 million tons and Louisiana makes 1.44 million tons.

§ Sugar has been grown in Louisiana for about 250 years. In Florida, sugar production is much more recent, only about 70 years. There were many failed attempts to grow sugar in Florida, from about 1765 to 1931, all failing because of hurricanes, floods and disease. Finally in the 1930's sugar production took hold in Florida, but it did not really become a huge business until the 1960s, following the Cuban revolution, when many experienced Cuban sugar growers and producers moved to Florida.

§ Two kinds of sugar: Beet sugar and cane sugar. Beet sugar is grown from a large root that looks like a gigantic turnip. It is related to the red beet plant, and is a moderate weather plant. It prefers to grow in colder climates; it does not do well in warm, tropical climates because of root diseases and root rots. Cane is grown from a giant tropical grass and prefers warm, tropical climates. Louisiana is about as far north as sugarcane can grow, and special varieties with cold tolerance have been developed for Louisiana.

§ There is no chemical difference between pure cane and beet sugar, although some chefs will insist that there is.