February
2002
Sugar:
The Bittersweet Story
By Samantha Knowlden
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Sugar, that sweetest of substances, has shaped the course
of our history. Sugarcane, the main source of sugar, is a tropical grass
native to Asia, and its name comes from the Sanskrit word Sharkara,
which means “material in a granular form.”
It is believed that sugarcane was first domesticated in New Guinea about
10,000 years ago. A prolific plant that thrives in warm tropical areas,
sugarcane easily spread to the Philippines, Egypt, China, India and
beyond. The Egyptians developed the evaporation and clarification techniques
similar to the ones we use today. Sugar and sugar processing technology
were introduced to Europe through Spain, having been brought by North
African Muslims, known as the Moors. The Europeans used it as a spice
and preservative, for medicinal purposes and as a luxury item affordable
only to the rich.
Many people assume that sugar is indigenous to Central and South America.
However, it was Christopher Columbus who brought the first sugarcane
plants to the Americas from the Canary Islands in 1493, and sugar plantations
began to develop in colonies in the early 1500s. The economies of Brazil,
Cuba, Jamaica, Barbados and other places in the Caribbean became dominated
by the production of sugar products including crystallized sugar, syrups,
rum and molasses. Millions of slaves were transported from Africa to
farm and harvest the lucrative crop, and their cheap labor and the increase
in production turned sugar into a widespread commodity affordable to
the working class in Europe. By 1675, the European sweet tooth had grown
insatiable: 400 ships with an average of 150 tons of sugar each were
sailing to England annually. Today, sugar, in one form or another, is
an ingredient in just about every processed food we eat, and global
consumption for the coming year is predicted to be about 130 million
tons—that’s something like 43 pounds for each of the six billion
people on this planet!
The most familiar form of sugar—grainy white crystals—goes
through a refining process and is bleached, and is thus stripped of
all its nutrients. But sugar comes in many other forms. For example,
molasses is a syrupy by-product of the refining process and is comprised
of the coloring, vitamins and minerals separated from sucrose (the simple
sugar commonly known as table sugar). Sucanat is another form, made
by blending together molasses with the refined sugar product to form
a sweetener with less sucrose and more vitamins. Evaporated cane juice,
turbinado and raw sugars are only partially processed, leaving some
of the surface molasses and nutrients. Don’t be fooled into thinking
that “brown” sugar is unadulterated: Typically, brown sugar
is refined white sugar with molasses added for coloring and flavoring.
Many of these sugar products are also made from sugar beets, which are
grown in more northern climates and undergo the same processing as sugar
cane.
So, what’s bitter about this sweetness? The growing and processing
of sugarcane affects the environment in many ways. Tropical forests
are cleared to plant sugarcane, and toxic pesticides and fertilizers
are applied liberally. Fossil fuels are used to run the mills and refineries,
generating waste in the process. Huge amounts of fossil fuels are also
needed to transport the sweet stuff around the world. In addition, some
sugar companies use animal bone charcoal in the refining process to
filter out colors and impurities from the sugar, which may be of concern
to some people (for more information visit the Vegan Outreach Web site
at www.veganoutreach.org).
There are a number of companies that grow organic sugarcane with a concern
for the environment. Florida Crystals is one, the only grower and producer
of organic cane sugar in the U.S. They have a unique system of rotating
sugarcane crops with rice, which restores the soil’s fertility,
removes weeds and unfriendly pests, and provides habitat for many species
of wading birds. They use other sustainable agriculture practices such
as biological pest control, wildlife resource management, natural fertilizers,
water resource management and recycling. Florida Crystals uses the leftover
sugarcane fiber, called “bagasse,” to produce the steam power
needed to run their mills and refineries. This produces enough power
to provide surplus energy for the equivalent of 80,000 area homes, saving
roughly 1.6 million barrels of oil or 400,000 tons of coal each year.
If cane or beet sugar is not your thing, many alternative sweeteners
are available including agave nectar [see “Introducing the Honey
of the Gods—Agave Nectar!” in “Recipes,”
Satya, August 1999], honey, barley malt, rice syrup, date sugar, concentrated
fruit juices, fructose, corn sweeteners, stevia (a South American plant
that is 300 times sweeter than sugar) and maple syrup.
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