Sugar Cane - Worlds Biggest Source of Sugar

By Melissa Leong

Sugar cane is where the vast majority of the worlds source of sugar comes from. Sugar beets on the other hand, is also utilized in some regions for sugar extraction. The attractiveness of sugar beet as a cash crop has been on the rise even though the huge majority of farmers still choose sugar cane. It actually is a kind of grass that grows very high, up to 18 feet in height. Genetically modified versions have been the key type of crop utilized by plantations today. They are type of hybrid that has been engineered for sugar content in addition to disease resistance.

Found only in tropical regions of the world, countries in such climate zones are perfect regions to grow this plant on a huge scale. The two largest producers of sugar in the world are none other than India and Brazil. Brazil produces so much that 35% of our sugar comes from this country.

This crop also has a notable ability, it can regrow itself completely from the roots. This makes harvesting very easy as the entire stalk minus the roots are taken. This can be done many times before replanting is necessary. While it can differ from climate to climate, it takes on average around 12 months to mature. It can take as long as a a small number of months to harvest this plant in very large plantations. There are two steps when it comes to sugar cane processing. Raw sugar is the result of the primary stage. The second stage produces what we know as refined sugar.

Sugar cane use has other advantages besides being a great source of sugar itself. Its juice has been known to contain anti-cancer properties as it is alkaline in nature. Prostate cancer as well as breast cancer are two regions where studies have shown it to be effective. While the sugar from this

plant is seen as being all overly sweet for several people, it has less sugar than one would find in common soft drinks such as Coke or Pepsi. The waste collected during processing can be utilized to generate electricity

Also, sugar cane is a large supply of bio-fuels The automotive industry uses ethanol harvested from two main crops, sugar cane as well as corn. It must be noted that sugar cane ethanol yields more energy per unit that corn ethanol does.

Melissa Leong has a website dedicated to the topic of sugar. Pay a visit for further information on subjects that deal with Sugar Cane as well as Sugar.