Sugar. Ah, honey, honey.

Who knew that sugar had so much history?  Most people in the world eat sugar everyday and probably do not even think twice about where it came from or its background.  When I was little (and most kids are probably this way) I always wanted candy and sweet things that had a lot of sugar in them but who knew that there is actually a process that goes into making sugar crystals.  The process of making the actual sugar crystals starts from the actual plant, sugar cane, which is a grass.  After the sugar cane grows and matures, it is cut and drained of its juices by chopping, grounding, pressing or pounding the sugar cane grass.  After all of the juices are collected, heat is added to the liquid that contains sucrose.  Evaporation occurs, leaving behind very concentrated sucrose.  Finally, after the concentrated sucrose cools, it leaves behind how we are use to seeing sugar, in its crystallized form.

Aside from the process of making sugar, the actual sugar cane grass is thought to have been around since 8000 B.C and was first domesticated in New Guinea.  It is fascinating to think this agricultural staple has been around that long.  Even though sugar cane has been around for a long time, it is very difficult to grow and climate conditions have to be near perfect.  For example, in the Mediterranean region, sugar cane was being grown in the northern areas as well as the southern areas and also being grown in the summer.  It was difficult to grow sugar cane in the northern parts of the Mediterranean because the growing season was so short and sugar cane needs quite a while to grow and mature. Sugar cane also requires a lot of water, tropical to subtropical climate and very little temperature fluctuations.  In the southern parts of the Mediterranean long and hot summers made it difficult to water the sugar cane and keep it growing.

Fast forward to the 21^st century and sugar is everywhere.  There are probably very few things in the grocery store you can buy that do not contain some sort of sugar.  In a political ecology sense, sugar is the cause of many controversial topics and can be related back to our discussion about capitalism, social justice and equity.  In Brazil, sugar cane is a leading crop and can be tied in with big companies exporting the sugar from the area and paying the farmers and workers who cut and maintain the sugar cane plantations very little money.  It is very much a capitalist market in which the main goal is to maximize profits, with very little cost to the companies, no matter how bad the working wages and conditions are.   Sugar cane is also grown in very few places around the world and since the demand is high, suppliers can charge as much as they want for their sugar, knowing there are few markets to choose from.

Sugar cane farm on the island of Negros in the Philippines.

http://www.reap-canada.com/international_dev_4_3_3.htm  (where I got my picture)