From the Editor: Sugar’s Bitter Journey

by

Sugar’s Bitter Journey

It is now October, sugarcane harvest has started or is about to start in most countries in the region (Central America and the Caribbean). For sugarcane growers, the cutting season symbolizes the impending payment they will receive for having planted, grown and harvested the cane during the prior 12 months. For rum distillers who only distill during the season (who use cane bagasse exclusively to fire their furnaces), harvest time means the beginning of a 24-hour-aday, 7-days-a-week marathon that will last a couple of months, until the last stalk is crushed and processed. For residents around the cane fields and the sugar mills, harvest season means something completely different: dangerous road conditions, traffic jams, irresponsible truck drivers rushing to make deliveries and, last but not least, many will complain about smoke pollution from the burning fields.

The burning fields are, by their nature, sensationalistic, terrifying and, for those lacking the knowledge of how the industry works, hard to justify. Sugarcane fields can be set on fire before or after cutting the cane (before loading the cut cane onto transportation trucks). There are several reasons why this is done, among them:

• To eliminate razor sharp leaves that can injure cane cutters

• To drive off or kill animals and insects that can pose a danger to the cutters

• To eliminate excess weight from being transported to the sugar mill

Not burning the fields means that all three situations listed above would become a reality, resulting in increased costs to the producers, without being able to pass the cost hikes to the final consumer (sugar is a commodity).

I recall a newly-elected mayor, near one of the sugar processing plants where I do a lot of work. This official had ran his campaign promising to “put a stop to sugarcane field burning” and, true to his word, as soon as he took office, the ban went into effect. The unexpected consequence of this act was that after the harvest, the town experienced its worst infestation of rats in recorded history, since the fields had provided for ample nesting habitat.

While I am not oblivious to the fact that the sugarcane trucks pose a threat to other commuters while on the roads and that burning the cane fields does affect the environment, I also have to look at this problem from the grower’s perspective, in a highly commoditized market.

I hope we will find a solution to this challenge.  In the meantime, the sweet grass continues to selflessly reward us with its sweet juice, allowing us to forget, even if it is for just one moment, how bitter is the road it has to travel to do so.

Cheers,

Luis Ayala, Editor and Publisher