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Our Green Rule ....
Wholesome Sweeteners' ethos is shaped by a deep concern for the long-term health of the planet and all of its inhabitants. We believe in sustainability, traditionally made artisanal products and a very light footprint. It's a big job, but we're making progress.
We use traditional methods ...
- From the seed stock to harvest, our sugar cane is cultivated by hand and grown without synthetic fertilizers, pesticides or herbicides
- Wherever possible, we work with Fair Trade CertifiedTM farmers cooperatives
- At the small mills, our products are made simply and the spent sugar cane or blue agave remnants, called bagasse, are recycled as fuel to generate electricity for the mill and nearby villages.
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Organic logo is Wholesome's promise that we hold every product to a high environmental standard. Each product bearing the Organic logo has been grown and milled to the USDA's National Organic Program (NOP) standards and without the aid of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides or chemicals. Our suppliers are routinely inspected by Wholesome's operations team as well as inspectors from Quality Assurance International, a third-party certifier, to assure that we maintain USDA Organic Standards.
The Sugar Business...
The US is an important sugar grower, producing more than 80% of the sugar consumed domestically. It's mostly from beets and cane, but because of soil conditions here, growing substantial quantities of either crop organically is practically impossible. (And of special note: genetically modified beets are an emerging crop in the American Midwest.)
Too often, the small percentage of sugar that the US imports is grown by impoverished sugar cane farmers in the developing world, most often in or very near the tropics (between the Tropic of Cancer in the northern hemisphere and the Tropic of Capricorn in the southern hemisphere--23°30' north and south of the equator). With the exception of Fair Trade Certified farmers cooperatives, plantation-style factory farms are the norm, and the farmers are frequently subjected to a fluctuating--often declining--world market price, unscrupulous middlemen, environmental degradation and hazardous working conditions.
The everyday processes used to grow conventional cane can be devastating to the soil, water, air and the people who grow the crops, which are often treated with chemical herbicides and pesticides. The cane fields are burned before harvest to remove any unwanted leaves and field debris to make it easier for harvesting machines to get to the cane. Once harvested, the juice from the crushed cane is often treated with chemical flocculants, clarifying agents and filtering aids, then sodium, bleaches or bone char to whiten and brighten the final product. (Bone char is the reason conventionally refined sugar is not recommended for vegetarians)
The Wholesome Sweeteners Approach
While the proverbial jury is still out on the long-term effects of these practices to consumers, at Wholesome, we'd rather err on the side of the people and the planet. Wholesome Sweeteners buys organic cane from independently certified farmers in Brazil, Costa Rica, Malawi and Paraguay. We guarantee that our organically certified sugars, syrups and nectars are cultivated without herbicides and pesticides. Rather than spread chemicals or burn the fields, Wholesome Sweeteners' farmers let nature support the crop's cultivation. Recycled chicken feed is used as occasional fertilizer. The cane's trimmed leaves and stalks are left in the fields, providing cover and forage for wildlife, then decomposing naturally, returning important nutrients to the soil, helping retain moisture and acting as a natural form of weed control.
In 2001, Wholesome Sweeteners' first year of operation under the Billington's/Imperial sugar partnership, we bought just 3,000 metric tons* (or 6.6 million pounds) of organic sugar from Paraguayan farmers. On average, an acre can produce about 35 metric tons of organic cane or 3.5 metric tons of organic sugar.
In 2007, Wholesome bought nearly 30,000 metric tons (66.2 million pounds) of organic sugar from Paraguay. Between 2001 and 2007, there was a 10-fold increase in land dedicated to organic cane cultivation in Paraguay alone--from 10,000 acres to nearly 100,000 acres.
Wholesome Sweeteners' Fair Trade programs help small sugar farmers earn more so they can pay for organic certification and training in sustainable agriculture techniques as well as converting land to organic cultivation. Paraguay and Costa Rica grow organic Fair Trade Certified sugar cane. *A metric ton is the industry standard for describing the weight of sugar. A metric ton weighs about 2205 lbs. |

Monitoring Food Miles
Fostering Sustainability
Raising Cane & Making Sugar
The Honey Makers
Hecho en Mexico: Organic Blue Agave Production & Processing
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