Sugar beet
Sugar beet ("Beta vulgaris") production was first commercially developed in France, in response to the effect of the blockades on imports from the West Indies during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars with Britain and other countries. Later, beet was raised in the reclaimed fenland east of Bourne, after trials elsewhere in England had proved unsuccessful. Although Britain's ravenous demand for sugar was mostly met by European beet and West Indian cane sugar imports until shortly after 1900, the successful sugar beet production in areas such as that around Twenty just met the nation's sugar requirements during the First and Second World Wars.