Do you know where your sugar comes from? "Sugar cane!" you might say. Actually, there is a high probability that your white refined sugar does NOT come from the sugar cane plant! Much of our sugar actually comes from sugar beets! What is a sugar beet? A sugar beet "is a plant whose root contains a high concentration of sucrose... Beet sugar accounts for 30% of the world's sugar production... The United States is one of the world's three largest sugar beet producers."-Wikipedia. For more information about the sugar that may be sitting on your table, go here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar_beet
http://www.idahofb.org/commodities/sugarbeets.aspx
Today I called a local sugar beet factory and asked if they gave tours. I would love to see with my own eyes the steps involved in the sugar refining process, be it sugar cane or sugar beets. There is probably a slight difference in the refining process of each. I was told that since 9/11, they are no longer able to give tours for bio-terrorism reasons. Shucks! I asked if someone who worked there would be interested in an interview and was given the name and phone number of two people at corporate headquarters. Cool! The outcome of this interview is TBA!
Let's not leave out sugar cane. Here is a link to information about sugar cane:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar_cane
Let's not leave out sugar cane. Here is a link to information about sugar cane:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar_cane
3 comments:
Love your blog! What a great challenge for the year- sounds like you're doing a great job, though.
To make sugar even worse, now Monsanto is making genetically engineered sugar beets...
wow, what a happy, exciting discovery I made coming across your blog site today!
That's great, Sara. Welcome to my sugar-free world!
I agree with you, Liz, the genetically engineered business is quite frightening! Another good reason to buy from local, organic farmers as much as possible and to cut out/down on the junk food!
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