Common conception is that all
sugar's made from
cane, that it grows on massive
plantations and is grown and harvested by
merry slaves.
Less attractive is the
reality: much of our sugar comes from
sugar beets. They're
tough suckers, and they look (
duh) like any other type of beet.
With one important difference: whilst raw, they are nasty and
inedible.
My grandma used to live on a farm where they were grown. Now she lives in the
shadow of a factory which processes them. It puts off an odor similar to that of
human flatulence.
One Thanksgiving two
cousins and I were wandering through a
barren field on the farm, and we found a
sugar beet full of
teeth marks that seemed
human.
Odd indeed, because as I said,
the damn things cannot be eaten.