So last week, to celebrate the Peeled Snacks move to Brooklyn, I took a trip to Louisiana.  Former French colony Acadia (the term for whose citizens, when mutilated by Yankees, somehow turned into "Cajun"), Louisiana is home to the mouth of this continent's longest river, the worst natural disaster in USA history, lots of tasty food, impeccable Jazz, institutionalized corruption, and most of the US's Sugar Can production.

The history of food can easily be filtered through what makes food sanitary and palatable.  For thousands of years, whole economies and histories were built around the Spice trade.  Populations started exploding after the invention of refrigeration.  And Sugar, that cheapest, most efficient form of a carbohydrate, has driven the American diet since WAY back in the day.

Picture Ben Franklin and George Washington chewing the fat after their victory against the British in 1783.  When Martha served cake for dessert, it was baked with sugar from Sugar Beets.  Same thing with the beer Mr. Franklin so famously brewed.  After the Louisiana Purchase, production of cane sugar exploded, and Louisiana grew 90% of the nation's sugar for well over 100 years.

Now why, tell me, did the entire US agricultural economy shift away from sugar to Corn?  Look on most packaged food's ingredient lists (outside of your local Whole Foods, that is), and you'll find High Fructose Corn Syrup in the top 3 ingredients.  Sugar can't be found anywhere but in "Hippie Food" these days.  After checking out a Sugar Cane plantation, I now know why....

Most of the world's sugar comes from Brazil, which has no Winter.  Almost all of the sugar in the US comes from Louisana, which, contrary to typical Yankee belief, DOES have a Winter, or at least enough of one to curb any chance of a growing season.  Brazil plants sugar cane in August and harvests in May.  Louisiana plants in September and harvests in November....

November, 14 months LATER!!!!

Long have I wondered why US corn-sugar production has "kicked sugar cane's butt" (to quote the cane sugar plantation tour guide), and now I get it- American sugar cane takes TWICE as long to grow, and time is money.  Corn grows tall and bounteous every year, particularly since the feds have subsidized it so heavily.  That's twice the production, which can be seen as half the cost.

There's plenty of other factors, like the fact that Corn can be grown in 40 American states, while Cane can be grown in 4 states or so.  There's the multiple uses of Corn, whereas Cane really only has one use.  And there's the very recent pipe dream of corn-based fuel, but that's hardly a factor to corn's proliferation (and I bet will hardly be a factor in future energy policy, in spite of the hype).

Cane Sugar, as sweet and wonderful as it is, turns out to be a pain to grow in the Northern Hemisphere.  All that American Heritage turns out to come from deep knowledge of the soils and season, lots of hard work, and PATIENCE.  It's that last one that turns out to be bad for business, at least for Sugar's sake (and, therefore, for the sake of the State of Louisiana)....