Sugar cane is the world’s largest crop! It grows in warm, moist climates like the tropics and especially in places like Brazil.
In England they grow sugar beet! For example there is a company called British Sugar which grows and also researches sugar beet. They have career schemes so are an example of an alternative to working in a university or research institute if you want a career in science.
Sugar cane is a grass related to wheat, maize and rice. It is currently grown in more than 90 countries including Brazil, India, Thailand and China.
It can grow in tropical (very hot) or temperate (european climate) climates, so it could grow in the kind of temperatures we have in England. However, it requires a lot of water – it needs continuous water for around 6-8 months. Another issues is that it doesn’t tolerate frost well. Both of these factors mean we cannot grow it in England as we don’t have enough rain (hard to believe I know!) and we also get frosts which would kill the sugar cane.
Most sugarcane is grown in the tropics where there is loads of water available in the rainy season and no frosts!
We don’t grow sugar cane, but we do grow sugar beet. Sugar beet produces a big storage organ underground, a bit like a potato or carrot that is full of sugar. The beets are harvested and the sugar is extracted.
This process makes a lot of excess heat, and the factory which does a lot of this near me recycles that heat, using it to heat a MASSIVE glasshouse full of lots of different tomatoes. It’s a great use of recycling that heat!
It isn’t related to wheat. It isn’t actually wheat that coeliac a people can’t eat – it’s the starch called gluten found in wheat. If you wrap flour in a cloth and run it under warm water you will wash away all but the gluten and actually see what gluten looks and feels like! It’s a fun experiment to do at home
Sugar cane is actually related to wheat – they are both grasses. However, even though they are related it doesn’t contain gluten as Izzy says. People with Coeliac’s can’t eat wheat because of the gluten in it. This means they can eat sugar cane.
Comments
wookiee commented on :
if its related to wheat can people with caelics be allergic to sugar??
Izzy commented on :
It isn’t related to wheat. It isn’t actually wheat that coeliac a people can’t eat – it’s the starch called gluten found in wheat. If you wrap flour in a cloth and run it under warm water you will wash away all but the gluten and actually see what gluten looks and feels like! It’s a fun experiment to do at home
Amelia commented on :
Sugar cane is actually related to wheat – they are both grasses. However, even though they are related it doesn’t contain gluten as Izzy says. People with Coeliac’s can’t eat wheat because of the gluten in it. This means they can eat sugar cane.