Sugar
By Alexx, Veronica, and Dorian
How/why is this product used?
• Sugar is found in almost everything, but mostly in
baked goods, sodas, and candy.
• Sugar is used for trade.
• Sugar is a preservative. It lowers temperature at
which food is frozen.
• Sugar can treat skin and urinary tract infections,
bronchitis, anemia, cough, ayurvedic, and helps loss
of milk production.
• FUN FACT!-To cure hiccups, mix fresh stem juice from
sugarcane with ginger.
What are the environmental
consequences of extracting and/or
using this product?
• Sugar production takes a toll on the surrounding
soil, water, and air, especially in the threatened
tropical ecosystems near the equator.
• Some sugarcanes are grown with agro-chemicals
which destroys the wildlife, air, and soil in areas
that are not around their natural tropical areas.
• Sugarcane forming is the destroying the coastal
wetland and the byproducts run into the Great
Barrier reef.
What are the cultural consequences of
extracting and/or using this resource?
• Everyone uses sugar to sweeten their coffees, juice
mixes, and putting it in food that are supposed to be
healthy, for example, oatmeal.
• Sugar is something the body actually needs for
energy.
• All the dairy products, vegetables, fruits juices, and
foods with high calories and low in vitamins and
minerals.
• Sugar causes nutrient deficiencies, cavities, dental
plaque, diabetes, and weight gain. (Each grain of
sugar equals 4 calories.)
What is the government doing about
it?
• The government isn’t doing anything to stop
it. They are actually helping out by spreading
sugar cane plantations.
• They offer land to give to countries like Brazil
to expand and grow their sugar cane
plantations.
What does our group think should be
done? Well…
• We believe the effects of sugar cane
harvesting are horrible. The permanent
damages it leaves on the earth's coasts,
waters, rain forests, tropical areas and fields
needs to be changed. To help, sugar cane
harvesting should be monitored. There is an
organization called the Sucrette Project that
monitor sugar cane farms and they are trying
to develop a tool to grow better quality sugar
cane.