Sugar beet: a biennial plant descended from wild seashore or sea beet. The sea beet is a plant native to the Canary and Madeira Islands, the Atlantic and Mediterranean coastline of Europe and along the Black Sea in Russia.

When first domesticated, the root was little favored for it was described as thick hard and of not much use once the plant had flowered. The leaves were cooked and used as herbs by both the Romans and Greeks. The leaves were used for headaches and 'turnings of the brain', inflammations of the eyes and good against all venomous creatures. By the Middle Ages the roots were chopped and felt to have great remedial powers and believed to be good as a laxative diuretic.

In the first year the beet grows its leaves and a root or bulb. The bulb of the beet consists of three parts: the head, from which the leaves grow, the neck that is the interconnection between the head and the root. The root is spindle shaped with two furrows on the side, from which fine rootlets grow.

These rootlets can draw nutrient from the soil as deep as six and a half feet. Sugar is created through photosynthesis in the leaves of the sugar beet, and this is deposited in the root. The roots are harvested and transported to a factory for processing. The main sugars provided by the beet are white sugar, powdered sugar, brown sugar, and treacle (molasses) all determined by the length and type of processing.

Sugar is utilized for more than just human and animal consumption, it is also used in the curing of tobacco and is an essential ingredient in the production of ethyl alcohol, glycerin, citric acid and levulinic acid (a crystalline keto acid).

Sugar has been around for a very long time; with sugar cane being the predominant source. Sugar from cane, is thought to first be used by man, in Polynesia and its usage spread to India. In 510 BC the Emperor Darius of what was then Persia invaded India where he found 'the reed which gives honey without bees'.

Western European as a result of the Crusades only discovered sugar in the 11 th century AD. Crusaders returning home talked of the 'new spice' and how pleasant it was.

The beets as a source of sugar was first identified in 1747 and was attributed to Andres Marggraf, a German chemist. He proved in his laboratory that the beetroot stored pure sucrose and that it could be extracted. This did not precipitate much excitement. That is until forty years later when one of Marggraf's students, Franz Karl Achard planted beets and succeeded in obtaining a substantial amount of sugar from them. Frederick William III, King of Prussia interested himself in the discovery and sugar factories were built in Silesia and Madeleburg, France. In 1810 Napoleon began to encourage the manufacturing of sugar from beets.

The first beet sugar factory in the United States was built in Northampton, Massachusetts, in the late 1830's and 1300 pounds of sugar was produced. Due to economic difficulties the factory shut down forever in 1841. (Another source gives credit to California for the first beet sugar factory in 1869; it too had less than glowing production).

The first successful venture of the beet sugar industry began in 1879 at Alvarado, California, by E. H. Dyer.

In the United States experiments in beet sugar manufacture were not extensively made until 1890 when the Department of Agriculture sent 5,000 packages of beet seed to different parts of the country for the purpose of experimenting in different localities. These seeds were distributed through 28 states and territories, with directions for planting. After growing the crop about 1,000 localities sent samples to Washington to be used in making tests of their value in beet sugar manufacture. It was found through careful examination that a zone about 200 miles wide, extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific through portions of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa and Nebraska possessed the qualities to develop this industry.

In sugar production from beets, some very influential figures were Dr. Harvey W. Wiley; sponsor of the Food and Drug Act and Chief Chemist of the United States Department of Agriculture, James Wilson; Secretary of Agriculture under Presidents McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt and Taft. Seventy of the 79 factories existing in 1915 were built during his tenure in office.

Some interesting but mostly useless sugar tidbits:

• In 1598 a German layer, Paul Hentzner said Queen Elizabeth had black teeth which he said was 'a defect' the English seem subject to, from their great use of sugar.
• King Henry III of England had difficulty in obtaining as much as three pounds of sugar for a banquet in 1226.
• In ancient Rome sugar was recorded as a medicine and recommended for the sick. In 1353 a French Royal decree required apothecaries to swear to never use honey when sugar was prescribed.
• At first most sugar in Britain was used in tea and later for candies and chocolates. It was commonly sold in solid cones and required a 'sugar nip' a pliers like tool to break off pieces.
• Sugar was once so rare; it was presented to European royalty in jewel-studded boxes.
• The U.S. sweetener industry includes 54 percent corn sweetener, 45 percent sugar from cane and beets and 1 percent from honey and edible syrups.
• Annual worldwide consumption of sugar is about 120 million tons and is expanding at a rate of about 2 million tons per year.
• The average American consumes about 43 pounds of sugar per year.
• Last but certainly not least in sugar trivia genre is the fact that the sugar beet song, sung nearly weekly on Sesame Street in the early 1980's had only two words: Sugar Beet.