Sugar is king in La.

• By CAROL ANNE BLITZER AND TOMMY SIMMONS
• Advocate food writers
• Published: Oct 29, 2009
• The Association of Food Journalists annual conference was held in New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Oct. 7-10. Last week’s Food section covered the New Orleans program, today the Food staff spotlights the group’s Sugar Day Oct. 9 field trip to Baton Rouge.

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Members of the Association of Food Journalists learned about sugar “from the ground to the table, the good and the bad” on a daylong field trip, “All About Sugar, Sugar,” sponsored by The Advocate on Oct. 9.

Presentations and food for the event spotlighted the story of sugar in Louisiana and its significance and future role to the state and the national economy.

The day began with a breakfast of churros (cinnamon-and-sugar-dusted twist-shaped doughnuts) and milk punch provided by restaurateurs Kenny LaCour, Kim Kringlie and Bob Iacovone, co-owners of Rambla, the hot tapas-style restaurant located in New Orleans’ International House Hotel.

After that, conference participants boarded a bus to drive to the LSU Sugar Research Station in St. Gabriel. Charley Richard, executive publisher of the Sugar Journal and Louisiana Cookin’ magazine and managing director of the Sugar Processing Research Institute in New Orleans, gave an overview of Louisiana sugar production during the trip.

According to Richard, sugar cane may have first been planted in Louisiana during the late 1600s by the French explorer Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville; however, there are no records of successful cane production until 1751 when Jesuit missionaries planted sugar cane on a plot of land located in what is now the middle of downtown New Orleans, right off Canal Street. The plantings survived, and by the late 1750s, there was a sugar mill operating on Esplanade Avenue.

The early cane varieties were susceptible to frosts, so the first sugar cane crops in Louisiana were mainly processed into a rumlike drink called “tafia.”

The first successful sugar production on a large scale was organized by Etienne de Bore with the help of Antoine Morin from Santo Domingo in 1795 on family property (now Audubon Park in New Orleans) of de Bore’s wife. His first crop netted him a profit of $12,000, and because of this success, sugar replaced indigo as the most important agricultural crop in the state.

After the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, Anglo-Americans poured into Louisiana and joined others in developing the sugar industry. New varieties of cane were introduced. Norbert Rillieux, a free man of color born in New Orleans and educated in Paris, invented an evaporation system for refining sugar. An estimated 300,000 slaves were imported to work the fields. The sugar industry was king and produced some 1,200 plantations in the state before the Civil War devoted to growing sugar cane and producing sugar.

Following the Civil War, the industry slowly began to reorganize. The shortage of labor was a problem. Mechanization was needed in order to survive, and slowly mechanization and use of chemical fertilizers replaced manures, and the sugar industry began to rebound. Again, new varieties of cane were needed to replace older varieties that were subject to diseases and pests.

Consolidation resulted in fewer plantations, mills and refineries, and this economic model continues. After World War I, the American Sugar Cane League, Louisiana State University and the U.S. Department of Agriculture joined forces to develop varieties for the Louisiana sugar industry. Louisiana is the northernmost location of sugar cane production in the U.S.

Richard noted that sugar cane acreage in the state is impacted by growing urbanization, where croplands are more valuable as subdivisions than agricultural fields, increasing fuel and fertilizer costs, global competition and changing diets. He predicted that sugar cane will become a valuable source of alternative energy through utilization in ethanol production.

Sugar cane remains the No. 1 row crop in the state with an annual economic value of $1.7 billion, he said.

As Richard outlined the history and economics of sugar cane production, the food writers took notes and asked questions so that they would understand the basis of the work that researchers are doing at the LSU Sugar Research Station.