Sugarcane

Sugarcane is a tall grass native to Asia, where it has been grown for more than four thousand years. It is cultivated mainly for its juice, which is used to make sugar. A sugarcane plant consists of stalks, leaves, and roots. Three or four stalks grow from the base of the plant. These stalks can grow as tall as thirteen feet. The narrow stalks have sword-shaped leaves at their tips that flower. The roots anchor the plant and take in water and nutrients from the soil. Sugar is made from the stalk of the plant. A mature stalk is made up of about 11 to 16 percent fiber, 12 to 16 percent sugars, 2 to 3 percent nonsugars, and 63 to 73 percent water. Most sugarcane is grown in tropical and subtropical areas. Brazil, India, and China are the largest cultivators of sugarcane, but the plant also is grown in Thailand, Pakistan, Mexico, Columbia, the Philippines, Indonesia, and the United States. The majority of sugarcane is grown to process sugar, but it can be used for other purposes, such as to make sugarcane ethanol (a type of fuel) or ethyl alcohol, which is found in alcoholic beverages.

Background

The wild sugarcane plant was first discovered by civilizations from New Guinea around 6000 B.C.E. People chewed the plant, enjoying its sweet juice. New Guinea farmers began cultivating sugarcane crops, and knowledge of the sweetness of the plant gradually spread to Southeast Asia, southern China, and India. India's warm climate made it an ideal place to grow sugarcane. Crude crystallization techniques began to emerge around 350 C.E. People realized that the sugar in the plant crystallized as the water evaporated out of the plant, separating solids from liquids.

India's signature "sweet spice" opened up profitable trade with partners around the world, and traders traveling by land and sea began spreading the knowledge they had gained about sugarcane and sugar production. By 650, China had established its own sugarcane plantations, and production spread to the Middle East, where Muslims enhanced the crystallization process.

Sugar did not reach Europe until the Crusades during the medieval period. European warriors who had tasted Middle Eastern foods flavored with sugar could not get enough of the sweet flavor, so they brought the "sweet salt" back to Europe with them. When wealthier Europeans started to develop a taste for sugar, they expanded trade in the region; Venetians decided to settle their own colonies in the Middle East. However, sugarcane growth and production was very expensive—even after Venetian, Italian, and Spanish traders started transporting it to Europe. During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, slaves in Cyprus and Valencia and workers in Portugal grew and produced sugar for Europe.

As European settlers began to expand westward into the Caribbean and Central and South America, they realized the warm climate would be perfect for growing sugarcane. Caribbean sugar production began on the island of Hispaniola in the early sixteenth century, and within a few years, Brazil had nearly three thousand sugarcane processing centers in its coastal regions. By the mid-1600s, French, Spanish, and Dutch colonists were in the sugar-production business, allowing the price to drop and make it more affordable. As sugarcane production spread to the southern American colonies, the British became involved.

With demand increasing and production expanding, the colonists needed a workforce, so they enslaved native peoples and imported additional slaves from Africa. Unskilled workers cut the large stalks on sugarcane plants using machetes. The process was difficult and dangerous. The work claimed the lives of more than three million slaves before the British Empire abolished slavery in 1833. By this time, slave labor made the Caribbean region the largest producer of sugar in the world, and low prices ended the sugar trade between Europe and India. The eventual use of machinery to harvest sugarcane drastically reduced the number of workers needed to produce sugar.

Overview

Sugarcane is most often propagated by the planting of cuttings. The section of the stalks that are best for planting are called seed cane. Mechanical planters are used to plant seed cane in fields. They dig a furrow, which is a long, narrow trench, fertilize the furrow, drop in the seed cane, and cover it with soil.

Sugarcane crops are harvested once a year and replanted after two harvests. After the first harvest, a second round of stalks grows from the old stalks, a process called ratooning. Despite advances in technology, nearly half of the world's sugarcane is harvested by hand, mainly in developing countries. The field is first burned to get rid of dry leaves and scare away snakes and vermin. Workers then cut the cane stalks nearly to the ground using machetes or knives. A skilled worker can harvest one thousand pounds of sugarcane per hour. Mechanical sugarcane harvesters cut the stalks at the base, strip off the leaves, and chop the stalks into equally sized pieces. The machines then deposit the stalks into a transporter. Mechanical sugarcane harvesters can harvest about one hundred tons of sugarcane per hour.

The majority of sugarcane is used to make sugar. During processing, sugarcane juice is extracted from the plant by crushing the stalks in large roller mills. The juice drips from the plant into large bins below the roller mills. The plant, called the fiber or bagasse, is taken to boilers, where it may be made into animal feed.

The extracted juice is dirty and must be purified. It is cleansed with slaked lime, a white alkaline substance that separates the juice from the dirt. The juice is thickened into syrup by "boiling off" some of its water. The syrup is then boiled until sugar crystals form. These sugar crystals are brown and still covered in syrup. The sugar crystals are then sent to a refinery.

At the refinery, the sugar crystals are separated from the syrup and purified. The remaining brown liquid is molasses. Refining washes away the outer coating of the sugar crystal, which is brown. The remaining sugar is then dissolved to make syrup and mixed with chemicals that absorb impurities. It is later heated to produce granulated sugar.

Modern technology has enabled sugarcane to be used for other purposes. It is used to make sugarcane ethanol, a type of fuel. Brazil's sugarcane industry has allowed it to replace about half of its gasoline with sugarcane alcohol. Sugarcane also can be used to make alcoholic beverages such as rum.

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