Yes, here it is, believe it or not. The Sugar Beet Conference Tale.
Everyone has sugar in their pantries at home, but how many people really know where it comes from? There are two basic sources of sugar throughout the world: sugar cane (grown in more tropical areas) and sugar beets. Sugar beets are a “tuber”, or root. They are about the size of an elongated softball and have a similar look as a large yam. As a matter of fact, many Europeans slice and fry these up like a potato. It’s a taste I could do without, however. The US grows both plants, with the market about evenly split. The growing areas for sugar beets is limited to about 1.7 million acres grown in the following areas: Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Idaho, Nebraska/Wyoming/Colorado, and until the last few years, California. Most sugar beet producers are farmer owned co-operatives, with only about three owned by public companies. I happen to work for one of them located in Michigan, Monitor Sugar Company.
Okay, here’s the culprit — the sugar beet in its natural habitat.
The Monitor Sugar Company has been in existence for 102 years at its one location in Bay City, Michigan. It was started by German immigrants who had been working in the lumber yards of Bay City. Up until about 1905, Bay City, Saginaw, and Muskegon, Michigan were the three largest lumbering cities in the country. This disappeared after a series of worker strikes, and the near elimination of forested land in Michigan. Europe has had a thriving sugar beet industry since the mid-1800’s (and still has a very large, government subsidized program), and the Germans realized they could grow beets in this area. The Monitor Sugar Company is the third or fourth largest factory for processing sugar beets in the country (out of a total of about 22 factories still in operation). This one factory processes about 8,000 tons a day of beets, which results in over 2,500,000 pounds of sugar daily. Over the course of the beet processing campaign, which lasts from October thru February, the factory processes 1,200,000 tons of beets, which are grown on about 65,000 acres across Michigan by over 700 growers, and pumps about half a billion dollars into the local economy. These beets are delivered to the factory by rail and lots and lots of trucks, all within a short timespan of 6 weeks in October and November. At about 35 tons/truck, you can see that the traffic is very heavy for a few weeks as 30,000 delivers are made. The bulk of the sugar we produce is sold as “industrial” sugar, and goes into Sara Lee products, Marzetti salad dressings, Keebler products, Pillsbury, etc. We also sell several “store brand” sugars and our own “Big Chief” brand.
Now that I’ve bored you to tears with a little bit about the business of sugar, let me tell you about the conference the industry has, The American Society of Sugar Beet Technologists/Beet Sugar Development Foundation Biennial Conference. This year it was held in San Antonio, the last meeting was in Vancouver, and the next will be in Palm Springs. You get the picture that these are held far away from the areas where beets are grown, and more than anything, its to get to some warmer weather as the processing campaign ends.
This conference has representatives from almost all of the beet sugar producers, suppliers and vendors. The business of sugar beets is very much a “family”, as many of the people in the sugar industry have been in it their whole lives, starting as production workers and working their way up the ranks. Also, the number of suppliers to the industry is limited, so everyone knows each other. I came to be in this industry about 3 years ago, as I left my former employer (a large chemical company) to find something less “corporate”, and that I found. I am a mechanical engineer, but have spent most of my career in environmental compliance/operations. Now I add this because, as I mentioned, sugar is a very “family” – style business. Now the downside of this is that there is not a lot of “progressive” thinking on anything other than getting more sugar out of the beets. The US Chemical industry has been fairly pro-active on reducing environmental impact, so I have been taking on a lot of this challenge in the sugar industry.
Now, the conference itself is a rather remarkable affair. There are several days of rather informative presentations covering agricultural issues, operational issues, and research and development. That’s the business side of it. The other side is the vendors and suppliers “wooing” the various companies with quite expensive meals at various 4-star restaurants around the town. 5 days of conference easily leads to a five pound weight gain. The most amusing part is that the diversity of the sugar beet industry becomes readily apparent during the course of these evenings. Now I am a city boy raised in NJ, Cleveland, Chicago, Buffalo, Columbus, OH. Many of the sugar people have never really left their small towns where they work. So they become very easily swayed by vendors, overwhelmed by exotic food and drinks, and really enjoy themselves at the hospitality suites that the vendors also provide. They are some of the best, nicest people around, but at times, can be slightly overwhelmed by the big-city. Now being the cynical city-boy I am, this doesn’t sway me, and usually ends up frustrating vendors who deal with me (but that’s part of the job I enjoy).
Over the course of the five-day conference, you get to talk with old friends, meet new ones, learn more about your business, learn how to improve your factory’s performance, and basically, to quote Roger, “a good time is had by all.”
Well, I hope I haven’t bored you to tears, but after making you wait as long as I have, I figured I would make it worth your while (plus, I didn’t want to work that hard today anyway). If you are interested in finding out more about sugar beets, and Monitor Sugar, visit the company website.
Ok, so how do they make sugar from beets?
You can find specifics on the Monitor Sugar website, or here’s the basics that I usually use to describe it:
1) Slice the beets into cossettes (basically a french fry shape OK, pcschnebs, I’ve edited out the silly name here)
2) Boil the beets to remove the sugars
3) Evaporate the water, leaving the sugar-laden juice, purify, then thicken the juice
4) crystallize the sugar, and centrifuge to separate the sugar from the molasses.
5) Dry, package, and add to coffee.
Pretty basic process that takes huge amounts of energy and big equipment.
Here is my tale of sugar beets…
California also had, and I say had, a good-sized sugar industry once upon a time. Lot’s of towns had processing plants where beets were received by rail primarily and then by truck.
There was Manteca, Tracy, Woodland, and Betteravia. The last was owned and operated by the Union Sugar Company and got beets several times during the year from various locations around the state. Water is always an issue for farming in the state, with many places only viable for farming thanks to imports or pumping. Beets made a good crop while they lasted. In the San Joaquin Valley, beets were harvested in the spring and sent to plants for a few months after. Beets also were grown in the northern Sacramento Valley and in the south in the Imperial Valley.
So why the interest? Well, it has to do with trains. Here’s a few links to images of beets on the move by rail on the Southern Pacific.
http://www.carrtracks.com/spctyind.htm
http://www.carrtracks.com/spwalng3.htm
The plant in Tracy was owned by Holly Sugar. To switch cars at the plant, it obtained a diesel switch engine that was surplus from the Southern Pacific. However, this was not just any locomotive. It was previously SP #1000, the first diesel locomotive owned by the railroad. Various groups have tried to acquire it for preservation, but it still sees occasional use at the plant.
Beets were big business for the Espee, even if they were seasonal. So the railroad took a series of general service gondola cars which had doors on the bottom for easy unloading and modified them by adding extensions onto the sides of the cars to increase their capacity. That was sometime in the mid-50’s. The cars were mostly wood with some steel hardware. They rode on wheels with friction bearings.
Fast forward into the 1990’s.
The sugar beets still move from field to the plants by rail, using the same old wooden cars. As they aged, they became maintenance nightmares, but they still got the job done. Modern freight moves in cars with roller bearings and are pulled by high speed, microprocessor controlled diesel locomotives. Not so the beets. They tended to get older first-generation diesels. In short, it was like a time machine at work as these rolling museum pieces carried beets to meet their fates.
So, fans of this older technology made pilgrimages to watch it in action. Places like South Dos Palos and Sargent saw beets loaded under the watchful eyes and cameras of railroad enthusiasts.
Train crews on the other hand, saw the whole thing in a different light. Old worn out equipment meant long days and nights on the road. Expecting to get home early was sheer fantasy if you got called for one of these jobs. Twelve hours on duty was more the rule than the exception. Couplers failed, brakes failed, and sometimes, the car just failed. Imagine beets everywhere on more than one occasion.
Union Sugar’s Betteravia plant was a major destination for these trains from all over the state. Transferred from the mighty Southern Pacific to the lowly Santa Maria Valley Railroad, these cars soldiered on. SP finally told Union Sugar that if they wanted the beets carried by rail that they would have to buy and maintain the fleet of worn out relics. Carrying the reporting marks of USGX, they did just that for their final years.
Today, the plant at Betteravia is closed and being torn down. Manteca has redeveloped its plant site for other industrial uses. Tracy lingers on, as does Woodland. Holly Sugar bought a fleet of newer steel cars and most of the beets shipped go to their plant at Woodland. What other beets are still grown go by truck.
So that’s the rest of the sugar beet story from my side of the Rockies…
But lest you think it ends there, here is a link to a preserved German railroad that also has a connection to sugar beets!
I’ve never been, but it sure looks interesting. Something to save for that next trip I think. And along those lines, fodder for another column as to why I would go back to Germany!
Don’t say we don’t cover a diverse selection of topics on those boards! More tales in the weeks to come…
But, it would be darn nice of you, if you could show your support and click on the link for his Amazon Honor System Paybox and throw a few million Turkish lira (1 dollar equals 1,595,100 lira) his way to keep him plugging along at the keyboard. To quote Homer Simpson, “Oooooh, how convenient.”
Private Car Service is working on an all-day trip this fall. Details will be posted soon on the Private Car Service web page. Stay tuned!