U.S. Sugarcane Industry About half of the sugar produced in the United States is obtained from sugarcane. The process of producing food-grade sugar from cane is complex.
Kenneth Gravois Louisiana State University Agricultural Center, Sugar Research Station
weeteners come in many forms but have Moyne d’Iberville, founder of Louisiana. Sone purpose, to arouse the palate. Some The popularity of sugarcane as a source of the common sweeteners used in the for sucrose soon flourished worldwide. Sug- United States are sucrose from sugarcane arcane is grown in many countries ranging and sugar beet, high-fructose corn syrup, from Angola and Argentina to Zambia and dextrose, sorghum syrup, maple syrup, Zimbabwe. Although the crop is grown pri- honey and an array of artificial sweeteners. marily in tropical regions, varieties of sugar- The focus here will be on sugar (sucrose) cane have been bred for adaptation into sub- tropical and even a few temperate growing Kenneth Gravois, PhD, production from sugarcane. is a sugarcane special- Sugarcane is a thick-stemmed grass (Fig- regions. The top five sugarcane-producing ist within the Louisiana ure 1) with an ability to accumulate large countries in the world are Brazil, India, State University AgCen- quantities of sucrose. Sugar is one of the most China, Thailand and Mexico (Figure 2). In ter. In addition, he is a the last several years production in India has professor of sugarcane widely traded food commodities in the world. varied. Recent droughts in India have breeding and genetics. From the spice trade routes to the high seas His father and three of early exploration, the quest for sweeten- brothers operate a ers has been relentless. Early explorers were Sugarcane 2,600-acre sugarcane farm. enamored with this tropical source of sugar when first encountered on the Pacific Islands. Christopher Columbus first brought sugar- cane to the New World on his second voyage. From the West Indies, travelers began to fur- ther spread sugarcane throughout the Caribbean and then to Central and South America. Sugarcane eventually found its way to south Louisiana in 1699 when brought in by the early French explorer Pierre Le Figure 1 ➤
42 May 2012 • The Manufacturing Confectioner