What are Sugar Beets?
Sugar beets, of the genus and species Beta vulgaris, are one of the main sources of table sugar and other forms of refined sugar. Though this plant was possibly native to the Mediterranean, refining sugar beets into sugar didn’t occur until the 19th century, when the British blockade during the Napoleonic Wars deprived the French of access to sugar cane. Credit for inventing the sugar extraction process from beets goes to Benjamin Delessert. Popularity of using beets for sugar spread and it soon became common to get sugar supplies from these plants in Europe and the United States, especially because the beets could be grown in a much larger climate area than could sugar cane.
