Sugar Cane

Sugar is a plant that most people take for granted due to its availability in foods both sweet and savory, however it’s widespread use hasn’t always been that way. Sugar is one of many plants that have been used throughout the history of European colonization to exploit land, decimate Indigenous peoples, and expand enslavement of Black and Brown peoples. Sugar has also become so commonplace in foods that most people don’t even realize they’re consuming it, and often consume more of it than may be necessary.

However, as with all the crops mentioned in this curriculum, sugar is not inherently bad due to its exploitation by humans. Through this profile we’ll look at some of sugar’s history and it’s journey to becoming how we engage with it today. While there are many sources of sugar (e.g. beets, corn, sorghum, etc.) we’ll be focusing on the journey of sugar cane in this section rather than on all the sources of sucrose which can be found in a variety of plants.