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Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida is a vertically integrated agricultural enterprise that brings sugar from cane fields in South Florida to dinner tables, restaurants and food manufacturing facilities throughout the United States and around the globe. The Cooperative comprises 45 small to medium-sized member farms that grow sugarcane on approximately 65,000 acres of what is among the most fertile and productive farmland in America, located in the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA). Sugarcane grown by Cooperative members is harvested, transported and processed. The raw sugar is then marketed to one of the American Sugar Refining, Inc., refineries. The Cooperative produces more than 350,000 tons of raw sugar annually, which once refined, is enough to serve the average annual demand of more than 9 million people.

History

The history of the Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida dates back to the 1950s when 16 farmers met to discuss joining together with other farmers in the region known as the Glades Area, which is west of West Palm Beach, Florida, and southeast of Lake Okeechobee, to form a farming cooperative. The group's goal was to provide a means to harvest, mill, process, and market sugar and its by-products from a collective crop of sugarcane to bring stability to the growers operations. In July 1960, 54 farmer-members chartered Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida. In the years since then, the Cooperative has grown in scale and scope and is now a vertically integrated operation involved in the farming, processing, marketing, refining and distribution of cane sugar.

Collectively, the farmers of the Cooperative have all of the resources, technical and regulatory support, marketing and legal resources, usually afforded to only the largest farming operations. The Cooperative makes it possible for these family farmers to stay on the leading edge of technology, use the most recent advancements in science to protect and preserve the environment and provide economic stability and viability in an increasingly complex global business.

Glades Sugar House

Once formed, the Cooperative's immediate need was to build a state-of-the-art processing facility and agricultural equipment to harvest the sugar cane grown by its members. The member-growers were assessed 30 cents per ton produced in 1960 to pay for the feasibility study to build their own sugar mill. In April 1961, the decision was made to build the mill, named Glades Sugar House.

The mill opened on November 22, 1962, with the capacity to grind 6,000 tons of sugarcane per day. Today, Glades Sugar House is one of the largest raw sugar mills in the world with the capacity to grind 26,000 tons of sugarcane per day. It operates 24-hours a day through the 150-day harvest season. The mill grinds approximately 3 million tons of sugarcane each annual harvest, producing more than a half-billion pounds of raw sugar per year.

Glades Sugar House is more than just a modern manufacturing facility – it is the heart of the Cooperative’s operations, and a powerful symbol of the benefits of small and medium-sized farms coming together to achieve economies of scale that allow them to compete as a major player in an important commodities market.

Governance

The Cooperative’s 45 members elect a Board of Directors to guide its policy and operations. Since its inception, each member, no matter what size farm, is treated equally with each member having one vote. Equal voice in Cooperative business keeps the organization unified and thriving in a competitive marketplace.

George Wedgworth

George Wedgworth is the founder, chief executive and president of the Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida. Besides being the visionary and driving force behind the Cooperative since day one, he is also a member-farmer. He has played a prominent role in Florida agriculture in labor-related activities, advocating improved housing, education and healthcare for Florida's agricultural workers. Most recently, Wedgworth was named the 2011 Community Leader of the Year by the Chamber of Commerce of the Palm Beaches. Wedgworth has received numerous other honors including his induction to Florida’s Agricultural Hall of Fame, Florida Trend magazine’s "Most Influential Men," the “Distinguished Service to Florida Agriculture” award from the Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association, and "Man of the Year in Service to Florida Agriculture" by Progressive Farmer magazine.

Environmental Stewardship

The farmer members of Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative operate some of the most technologically advanced and efficient farming operations in the world. The Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) is blessed with rich organic soil, flat topography, abundant rainfall, and solar period making it an almost ideal place to farm. However, the EAA is geographically located in the midst of the Greater Everglades ecosystem requiring farmers to pay special attention to environmental stewardship. Working collaboratively with University of Florida scientists, farmers have pioneered some of the most successful Best Management Practices (BMPs) to reduce nutrients leaving the farming region.

As part of the landmark “Everglades Forever Act” approved by the Florida Legislature in 1994, farmers in the Everglades Agricultural Area are required to achieve 25 percent reduction in phosphorus in waters flowing off of farmland. Additionally, the Act provided for the construction of 40,000 acres of natural filter marshes that further reduce phosphorous in water flowing from farms, urbanized areas and Lake Okeechobee. The Act also imposed a regulatory framework that imposes a $25 per acre tax along with comprehensive water quality monitoring and reporting requirements.

Farmers have exceeded the strict phosphorous reduction requirements during each of the 16 years since the law took effect. The average reduction is 53 percent − two times what is mandated by law. For water year 2011, farmers achieved an impressive 79 percent reduction in phosphorus flowing from the farms. Sugarcane also serves as an ideal filter crop for nutrient rich water flowing onto the farms from other sources.

Recognizing that farming is just one of many impacts to the Everglades ecosystem, Cooperative farmers have been important partners in state and federal efforts to restore the Florida Everglades by supporting holistic solutions to advance the Everglades' restoration. Other environmental benefits of sugar farming in the Everglades Agricultural Area include:

• Each year farmers in the EAA make a net contribution of 173 billion gallons of clean water to the Everglades ecosystem.
• Each acre of sugarcane removes 33 tons of excess carbon dioxide from the air and returns 21 tons of fresh oxygen to the air.
• Bagasse (the pulp, rind and fiber of the sugarcane stalk) fuels the Glades Sugar House boilers, creating steam-generated electricity to power the mill. By using bagasse as a fuel, the Cooperative saves the equivalent of 31 million gallons of fossil fuel each year.

Sugarcane

Sugarcane is a tropical grass native to Asia. Four species have been interbred to produce the sugarcane grown commercially by the Cooperative, which is from the genus Saccharum. It grows as high as 20 feet tall and about two inches in diameter. As a plant, sugarcane is one of the most efficient at converting carbon dioxide in sunlight and storing carbohydrate energy through photosynthesis.

All green plants produce sugar (sucrose), but none as effectively as sugarcane. Water in the leaves and photosynthesis enable the plant to convert carbon dioxide from the air and radiation from the sun along with chlorophyll into sugar, which is stored in the stalk of the plant.

Commercial sugarcane is not planted from seeds, but from planting cuttings from a mature sugarcane stalk in shallow furrows spaced five feet apart. Sugarcane is unique in that with each planting, four or more successive crops of mature sugarcane may be harvested.

Palm Beach County, Florida, home of the Cooperative, accounts for approximately 75 percent of the commercial sugarcane acreage in Florida and 75 percent of the total harvested sugarcane tonnage in Florida. Rich, organic soil, abundant water and sunshine, and the warming influence of Lake Okeechobee are the primary reason sugarcane farmers are located in the area. In 2010, the state’s raw sugar crop was valued at more than $2 billion in economic activity making it one of Florida’s top five most economically valuable field crops.

Sugar

Sugar from sugarcane is natural and has been grown by farmers for hundreds of years; it is one of the most natural and environmentally gentle crops grown in the United States. Sugar balances flavor, preserves foods and provides the necessary moisture to keep foods fresh. In its refined state, sugar is one of the purest commercially produced organic substances, containing more than 99.9 percent sucrose. For this reason, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has determined sugar to be a “safe food” because it is all natural and free of any synthetic chemicals, preservatives, or additives.

In 1512, when Ponce de Leon landed in St. Augustine, he brought the first sugarcane to Florida. This agricultural introduction was so important that the area south of St. Augustine became known as “Canaveral,” the Spanish word for sugarcane field. This area is now known as Cape Canaveral, home to the NASA Space Center.

The crop grew rapidly as growing and processing techniques improved. In 1600, the world’s largest industry was the production of raw sugar in tropical America. Sugar became the first commodity, besides precious metals, to be shipped from colonial America to Europe.

Today, world production of sugar exceeds 120 million tons annually with per capita consumption by Americans of 67 pounds per year. More than half of the United States’ supply of cane sugar is produced in Florida.

Molasses

One of the by-products of sugarcane processing is blackstrap molasses, which is sold primarily as livestock feed. The Cooperative produces 16 million gallons of blackstrap molasses annually. The molasses is then marketed through a non-profit trade association, which was formed in 1969 when the local market could no longer absorb the high quantities of molasses being produced.

Today all raw sugar producers in Florida belong to this association, the Florida Molasses Exchange, Inc., which provides efficient distribution of molasses domestically and abroad.

Growing and Harvesting

Commercial sugarcane is planted from stalk cuttings and placed in furrows about five feet apart. After approximately 12 months, the mature sugarcane is ready for harvest. Growers average four harvests each season from a single planting. Harvesting season lasts from late October through mid-March, approximately 150 days. The first step in the harvesting process is the highly controlled pre-harvest burning of the cane fields. Each field burn is individually permitted by the State of Florida Division of Forestry. Farmers are allowed to burn only when climatic conditions permit. Burning causes excessive leaves to be removed, preparing the way for the mechanical harvesters and then the processing of the cane. An added benefit to this practice is that it reduces the need for applications of pesticides. The Cooperative harvests an average of 500 acres per day using combine-style mechanical harvesters. In a typical harvesting unit, three or four harvesters operate in tandem with six to eight tractors and strings of wagons. The harvesters contain rotating knives, which cut through the sugarcane at the base of the stalk. The cane tops are also cut off by rotating knives and excess foliage is removed by giant extraction fans. As the sugarcane passes through the harvester, it is cut into 12-inch lengths and put into field wagons. The sugarcane is then hauled to a near-by transfer station and loaded onto semi-trailers for delivery to Glades Sugar House for grinding. Each semi contains about 19-tons of sugarcane. A load arrives at the mill site about every 45 seconds during daylight hours. Approximately 1,200 loads are delivered daily to keep the processing facility at peak capacity during harvest season. More than 61,000 acres are harvested each season, producing more than 2.4 million tons of sugarcane. Processing The Glades Sugar House operates 24-hours a day throughout the 150-day annual harvest. The mill grinds as much as 26,000 tons of sugarcane per day or three million tons each season. One ton of sugarcane produces approximately 220 pounds of raw sugar. Experienced operators use technology-based equipment to separate the harvested raw cane into sugar, water, molasses and bagasse (the pulp, rind and fiber of the sugarcane stalk). Every part of the sugarcane stalk is used. Within 24 hours of harvesting, each load of sugarcane is cut and processed into raw sugar. Along the way the high-tech mill uses all of the plant’s by-products. Even the fibrous wood pulp that remains after the sugar cane has been repeatedly pressed, crushed and shredded is not wasted. This pulp, called bagasse, fuels the mill’s boilers, creating steam-generated electricity to power the mill. By using bagasse as a fuel, the Cooperative saves the equivalent of 31 million gallons of fossil fuel each year. The water that makes up 80 percent of the cane stalk is also recycled and re-used within the process. Combined, all of the state’s sugar producers save 113 million gallons of fuel oil or 2.1 billion kilowatt hours of electricity each year. Processing involves separating the natural sugar juice from the stalk then concentrating the juice to produce raw sugar crystals and blackstrap molasses, which is sold primarily as animal feed. During the 2010-11 harvest season, the Cooperative produced more than 260,000 tons of raw sugar and 16 million gallons of blackstrap molasses.

Marketing, Refineries, and Brands

The Cooperative’s raw sugar is marketed and shipped through the Florida Sugar and Molasses Exchange located in the Port of Palm Beach, Florida. The raw sugar is sold to American Sugar Refining, Inc., where it is refined to produce white table sugar.

American Sugar Refining has refineries in Yonkers, New York; Baltimore, Maryland; Chalmette, Louisiana; Crockett, California; Toronto, Canada; and Veracruz, Mexico. These refineries market more than 4.25 million tons of refined sugar a year.

American Sugar Refining markets its products through Domino Foods, Inc., a wholly owned Cooperative subsidiary serving five key markets: grocery, food service, industrial, specialty sweetener and export. The products are marketed under the brand names Domino, C&H, Jack Frost, Florida Crystals and numerous private labels.

Molasses is marketed through a non-profit trade association. In 1969, when the local market could no longer absorb the high quantities of blackstrap molasses produced as a by-product of raw sugar processing, the Florida Molasses Exchange, Inc., was formed. All raw sugar producers in Florida belong to the Exchange, which provides efficient distribution of molasses domestically and abroad.

Everglades Agricultural Area

The Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) is approximately 20 miles west of West Palm Beach, Florida. The region contains one of the largest contiguous areas of rich, black-muck, organic soils in the U.S. The area is home to more than 400,000 acres of sugarcane crops.

The EAA was created by an act of Congress in 1948 at the same time as the Water Conservation Areas were developed as part of the Central and Southern Flood Control project. More than 450,000 acres are home to sugarcane, winter vegetables, sod and rice farms.

Water Management and the Everglades

As with most of Florida, early settlers had a difficult time developing the interior of Palm Beach County near Lake Okeechobee because the Everglades extended into the region. Beginning in 1847, various projects were undertaken to drain the land and make it usable with varying levels of success. This partial drainage of the Everglades made way for farm settlement between 1910-1926. The first commercially grown crops included sugarcane, tomatoes, beans and more.

In 1926, a hurricane struck the Miami and Lake Okeechobee region causing 200 deaths and extensive financial loss. Two years later, another hurricane hit Palm Beach and moved westward toward the lake, which overflowed, drowning approximately 2,400 people near Moore Haven.

From this point on, there have been varying levels of local, state, and federal government oversight in managing the waterways of the Everglades and surrounding agricultural lands. In 1948, Congress passed the Flood Control Act creating the Central and Southern Florida Control Project, a multi-faceted project providing flood control; water supply for municipal, industrial, and agricultural uses; prevention of salt water intrusion; water supply for Everglades National Park; and the protection of wildlife. The system is comprised of 1,000 miles of levees, 720 miles of canals, and nearly 200 water control structures. The Everglades Agricultural Area also was designated via this Act.

In 1994, Governor Lawton Chiles introduced the Everglades Forever Act as a means to improve the quality of water flowing into the Everglades.

In 2000, the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, or CERP, was introduced with the objective of restoring, preserving and protecting the South Florida ecosystem while providing for the region’s water needs.

In 2004, under the direction of Governor Jeb Bush, the State of Florida purchased 12,000 acres in Martin County to fast-track the Everglades restoration. This program was known as Acceler8.

Community

The grower-members of the Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida believe they have a responsibility to take an active role in the community. The Cooperative supports community building programs like youth services, education, environmental research, the arts, and health-related initiatives. Local schools and private schools are a priority. Community support also includes activities such as helping to fund construction at Lakeside Medical Center, the University of Florida Conference Center, vans for the American Red Cross, and providing library books and playground equipment for area schools.

Economic Impact

The Cooperative, Belle Glade’s largest employer, employs nearly 400 full-time and 200 seasonal workers and has an annual payroll in excess of $28 million. And, the Cooperative provides a $285 million economic impact to the State of Florida.

Further reading

• Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida (March 2002). "Where Does Sugar Come From". Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida.

External links

• Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida

Category:Carbohydrates Category:Excipients Category:Granular materials Category:Nutrition Category:Sugar Category:Sugarcane Category:Plants