Planting cane batons. New stalks and roots will grow from the nodes in the cane stalk.   Fertilizing the cane with chichen manure.   Harvesting the cane by hand with machetes.

Botanically speaking, sugar cane, Saccharum officinarum, is a member of the Poaceae, or grass, family. Like many grasses, cane is one of nature's best photosynthesizers, converting up to 2% of the sunlight it receives into new growth--and carbohydrates, or sugars.  Cane has been cultivated for thousands of years. Although it is native to Papua New Guinea, organic cane thrives naturally in variety of soils and climatic conditions, but always within the tropics (23°30' north and south of the equator). In some places, it's hot and humid; in others, it's hot and desert dry. Wholesome sources cane from both varieties of climates--the lush tropical rainforests of Brazil, Costa Rica and Paraguay and the arid deserts of the southeastern African continent.   About ten percent of every harvest is set aside for the next season's crop. The cut sugar cane stalks are planted and the cane is sprinkled with one of nature's best organic fertilizers, chicken manure. In Paraguay, for example, each hectare (two-and-a-half acres) of organically grown cane uses about 1.5 metric tons (3,300 lbs) of chicken manure annually. All weeding is done by hand, and nature is allowed to take its course.    Although the growing cycle varies from place to place, it generally takes from nine to 12 months for cane to mature. When the tall, sweet cane towers over the farmers who tend it, harvesting begins, by hand and with machete. The cut cane is trimmed in the field. The remnants are allowed to lay where they fall, slowly returning nutrients to the soil while providing a natural weed barrier and helping conserve the soil’s moisture.   Once cut, the cane is hurried to the mill, where it must be processed within 24 hours or the cane will begin to spoil. At the mill, the cane is crushed to extract its sweet, nutrient rich juice. The juice is collected and water, distilled from a nearby river, is added to make a sweet syrup. The syrup is clarified with slaked lime to remove any impurities, then concentrated through heat and crystallized to produce Evaporated Cane Juice ("granulated sugar") or in the case of Sucanat, dehydrated to produce a porous whole cane sugar.  The crystallized cane juice is spun in a centrifuge, which separates the majority of the cane’s natural molasses, (rich in vitamins and minerals), from the sucrose, or sugar crystals.  A gentle drying completes the process.   Depending on the environmental conditions, an acre of organic cane will yield up to 30 metric tons (MT=2205 lbs) of sugar cane, which, in turn, yields up to 3 metric tons of organic sugar. It depends on the region, but organically grown sugar cane yields tend to be about 70-80% of conventional farming and the subsequent sugar yield is about 90%.

 

Delivering cane to the mill		Crushing the cane		Filtering the cane juice		Drying the cane fibers (bagasse)

     

Conventional Sugar Cane Cultivation & Refining...     Conventional cane cultivation includes applications of chemical herbicides and pesticides. In Paraguay, for example, each hectare of conventional sugar cane uses 350kgs (about 800 lbs) of synthetic nitrogen-based fertilizer and 1 liter (1.1 quarts) of a diluted chemical herbicide concentrate for weed control each crop year. The cane fields are often burned before harvest to remove any unwanted leaves and field remnants. Besides removing the leaves, ground cover, and chasing out any animals that might have dens in the cane, buring the plants the can be devastating to the soil, water, and air, as well as the very people who help sustain the system).  When the cane fields are cleared, huge harvesters roll through the fields cutting the cane at remarkable speed. The cane is milled near the field, then transported to a refinery in the US, where is it repeatedly liquefield, filtered and crystallized until all of the cane's inherent qualities are removed and pure sucrose remains. Refiners often use chemical or synthetic flocculants, clarifying agents and filters including phosphoric acid, sodium, bleaches or bone char (the reason conventionally refined sugar is not recommended for vegetarians) to process sugar.