Many of the Irish migrated to America to help provide our rich cultural history. The History of the Potato is a fascinating look at our own human history. Try another adventure with a plant for all uses, the pepper . We eat about 88 lbs. of sugar per person each year. It is a great source of energy translated by the plant from the sun's rays of light.
Refined sugar is the same whether it comes from sugar cane or sugar beet.
A history lesson here is also helpful. Sugar cane is a grass plant, Sacchaarum officinarum , in the Poaceae or grass family and related to bamboo and the many grasses that also provide food like barley, wheat or rice. The wild species of sugar cane most likely came from New Guinea in the tropics. Processing sugar from canes dates back as far as 3000 B.C. in India, but since the cane only grows well in the tropics the main source of sweeteners in Europe was honey until the 1500's. Sugar cane growing was developed in the New World, primarily in the West Indies, and became a major crop that involved America, Africa, and the Caribbean.